The Goth and the Ghost
by The Cinderninja
Summary: Sam is new to Amity Park, and learns pretty quickly that it's not your average small town. What's with the Shadow following Sam around? Why can't Danny stop thinking about the Ghost Portal? And what exactly is the Fenton-Phantom connection? - DISCONT.
1. New Goth in Town

**Mossmask: Okay, DP is new territory for me. I've been trying to write in this fandom for weeks now but it just felt so awkard and I couldn't do it. Then last night, while I was eating dinner, sudden inspiration struck and I stared wrting like a woman possessed. I somehow went from being completely incapable of writing anything to... turning out this. Ah well. It was fun. And I'm exciting to finally be officially in this fandom!**

**Ah, also. This is pretty AU. It's not too far out compared to some of the AUs that I've seen in this fandom, and others, (they can get pretty whack-tastic. ._.), and for the _most part _conforms to canon. But there are a few prett big differences. As long as everyone's alright with that. =3**

**~Cya on the other side**

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><p><strong>Summary:<strong> Sam is new in Amity Park. She makes her first friends in Danny and Tucker on her first day at a new school, and learns very quickly that ghosts are an everyday occurence here in Amity Park. Soon after her arrival in town, however, there's a new ghost on the scene, who seems to different from all the others. Sam gets suspicious and starts trying to figure out the mystery behind Danny Phantom. But what happens when she figures out the secret... before Danny does?

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><p><strong>The Goth and the Ghost<strong>

Danny Phantom fanfiction  
>by The Cinderninja<p>

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><p><strong>Chapter 1: New Goth in Town<strong>

Sam sighed quietly, violet eyes gazing outside the car window at the unfamiliar landscape that was passing by beyond the tinted glass. Dark purple fingernails tapped against the leather car door, just beneath the window. Frowning, she abruptly leaned back into her leather seat and closed her eyes. The sun had set just over an hour ago, and since they were driving through the country in "the middle of nowhere", there was nothing much to look at outside.

She could feel her fathers eyes on her as she pretended to sleep, but didn't acknowledge him. She was still angry at her parents, but especially her father. It was his fault she had to deal with this whole stupid move. She had to leave her whole life behind, just because of him getting some stupid job offer. She had friends back in New York. And she'd only had three days notice to say goodbye. She came home from school one day to find half of her stuff packed into boxes and her parents waiting for her at the table in the living room.

_"Wait... what's going on here? Guys? Why's all my stuff packed away?"_

_"Oh, Sammy. I'm glad you're home. We're not going to have time to go through all of your stuff, so your going to have to pack yourself. We got started earlier today. You're going to have to be ready to leave by Friday." Her mother spoke without looking up from the paper she was reading. Her father didn't even acknowledge her._

_ "Pack? Leave? Why? Where are we going?" She demanded, growing angry. She hated it when her parents did this to her. Made big decisions without asking her. Talking to her. Without even telling her._

_ Her father looked up from the book he was reading,his eyes meeting her own for the first time. "I got a new job offer. It's a few states over. We're leaving on Friday. We should be settled in over the weekend. It's a small town called Amity Park. We've already settled things at the school there and you'll be starting on Monday, so you won't be missing any school." He explained calmly, before going back to reading._

_ Sam felt her heart skip a few beats. "..._What? _We're leaving the _state _and nobody bothered to tell me?"_

_ "We're telling you now. Your father and I didn't even know until yesterday evening."_

_ Clenching her fists, Sam suddenly spun around and grabbed her thick black jacket from where she had thrown it by the front door, and pulled it on over her purple corset. Without looking back, she shouted "I'm going out!" before storming out the front door. She took care to slam it behind her._

_ Twenty minutes later found her sitting cross legged on the reception desk at a small animal shelter tucked in between a second hand clothing store and an old fish and chips shop. She was staring at her clenched fists laying in her lap, otherwise unsure of what to do. She was too distracted by her own thoughts to notice as another girl came up behind her until she felt the hand on her shoulder, and jumped, startled._

_ "Sam? What're you doing here?" Jesse Cole, one of Sam's oldest friends. The two had met in third grade, fought until fifth, and then suddenly become inseparable by seventh. The two of them had started volunteering at the animal shelter together the summer before they started high school._

_ "I'm moving." She answered simply, still staring at her hands. "My parents didn't even tell me. But now my stuff's been packed away and we're just leaving. They didn't give me any time to... say _goodbye_ to people."_

_ "Ouch, that's harsh... It can't be that bad though, can it? Where are you moving to? Rochester? Albany?"_

_ Sam shook her head, ignoring the black strands of hair that fell over her face. "Jesse, they're moving out of state. And I'm leaving in three days."_

_ "...Oh." Her friend answered quietly._

_ "Yeah... I know." She muttered. "I think I might just stay. They probably wouldn't even notice. I could stay with you, right?" Looking up at Jesse for the first time, Sam grinned weakly._

_ "Sam..." Jesse smiled back, light brown hair falling just over her shoulders. She couldn't tell if her friend was joking or not. "My parents would kill us both. And you know yours would too."_

_ Both girls laughed quietly, in that way people laugh when they know that nothing's really funny but want to convince themselves that there's nothing wrong. The slightly younger girl suddenly straightened up, and glanced over at her long-time best friend._

_ "Oh, Jesse, here... I've got something for you." She said, reaching inside her jacket and pulling out a plain white envelope. She handed it over and her friend took it knowingly. "My donation for this week... because I don't know if I'll have the chance to give it to you later."_

_ Jesse nodded, pocketing the envelope. "I'll give this to Carrie when I see her..." Carrie was the woman who ran the animal shelter where both girls spent most of their time when they were off school. Sam had been in the habit, for a few months now, of giving Jesse her donation each week. Jesse would tell Carrie that it was from an 'anonymous donor', and that was that._

_ Sam had ended up spending that night at Jesse's house. She couldn't bring herself to go back to her own house yet and face her parents, and empty room. But especially her parents. She was still too angry with them for putting her through this. That turned out to be the last real "friend time" the two had together. Jesse's mom drove the two girls to the high school the next morning. They were sitting in class when Jesse was called down to the office near the end of the day. She called Sam later to explain. There was a family emergency – her grandmother was in the hospital, in critical condition. Her mother and her would be leaving town immediately. They had to watch the house for her, and make sure that all of her belongings were in order, or something like that._

_ Sam went straight home after school. Her parents didn't comment on her not coming home the night before. She went up to her room and packed in silence. She then sat on her bed and stared up at her ceiling, not wanting to see how hollow her room looked now._

Eventually, Sam managed to actually drift off into a real sleep, despite the vibrations the car continuously sent through her, knocking her head into the door a few times. She didn't wake up until a good few hours later, when her father opened her car door and shook her shoulder.

She opened one eye but didn't move. "What?" She growled, glaring up at him.

"We're here, Sam. Your bed is setup. You can go sleep inside the house now while we finish setting the furniture up. Remember, you have school in the morning."

"... Whatever." Sam muttered, unbuckling her seatbelt and shoving her father aside, pausing to stare up at their new house. "Great." She muttered sarcastically. It was even bigger then the one they'd had in New York, and far... tackier. That was all Sam could pin it as at the moment. Although, it was actually a fairly old house, and it actually looked pseudo-Gothic, if you squinted. She supposed it could look good, with some work.

That in mind, she skulked into the house and eventually found her way to her own room. Her bed was made, with light pink bedsheets and a lavender comforter. She hesitated for a second, before shrugging. She was too exhausted to care right now. She'd fix it in the morning. She didn't bother looking through the boxes for her pyjamas, and kicked off her boots. She pulled of her sweater, corset and skirt, and crawled into bed. She was asleep almost instantly.

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><p>"There's going to be a new student in our class, starting today. This is Samantha Manson."<p>

"It's Sam." She muttered darkly, staring out at the class before her. It all seemed average. There were jocks fooling off in the back of the room, a few nerds near the front actually taking notes. A worryingly large number of those annoying things she had come to know as 'valley girls'. Gossiping, ignoring the teacher, gossiping, reading magazines, and gossiping. Average. There was one girl sitting completely on her own in the back of the room reading a book and avoiding everyone else, and two boys who looked even more average then everyone else.

So average that they couldn't even get their own classification. Not average jocks, not average nerds, not average geeks, not average loners, not average anything. Just average boys. She shuddered at the complete lack of individuality in this classroom. At least in New York, there had been _plenty _'individuality'. Even if sometimes it was a little on the weird side, even by her standards.

"Samantha, I believe there's an empty seat next to Daniel."

One of the average boys waved. Sam groaned.

"Hi!" He grinned as Sam took her seat. "I'm Danny."

"...Sam." Sam offered back, after deciding against making a sarcastic remark. Just because she was mad at her parents, she shouldn't be a jerk to everyone she met at school. _Give the average boys a chance. _She scolded herself. She returned his grin reluctantly, then turned to face the front of the class as the teacher started speaking again.

By the time lunch finally came, Sam was tired and hungry and sick of her new school. Nothing interesting had happened, most of the teachers were jerks, and the work was boring. True, most of the teachers were jerks at her old school, and schoolwork was always boring, but her opinions were tainted with that I-already-hate-it bias that makes everything seem worse.

She had stuffed her backpack and her sweater into her new locker once she found it, and was now carrying her lunchbag down the hallway to the cafeteria. She started packing her own lunches years ago. Cafeteria food was disturbing, and her parents kept packing her gross things because they refused to acknowledge recyclo-vegetarian as a real thing.

She was passing by the girls restroom when she paused, listening to the snippets of conversation floating out the open door.

"Have you met that creepy new girl yet?"

"Eew, that Sam girl? Yeah. She's spooky."

"I know. I have to sit next to her in Math. She-" both girls cut off abruptly as Sam stormed in, glaring at them, and turned around to face the mirror. The Latino pulled out a tube of lip gloss and the blond, who'd been talking when Sam came in, pretended to start adjusting a flower in her hair.

"Hey, I'm not deaf, you know! And I'm not-" Sam stopped talking herself when the lights suddenly flickered off. "...What?" She wondered when they came back on. Before she could keep talking though, the lights flickered again, before suddenly all popping off at once with a shower of sparks. The stall door at the end of the room was flung open with a bang as it slammed against the wall.

The two other girls exchanged a look before staring at Sam. "How are you doing that?" the blond asked.

"She's crazy! Come on Star, let's get out of here!"

"Wait, it's not-" Sam stared after them, but the other girls had already left. She hesitated, staring into he shadows at the far end of the bathroom, and back at the bathroom door. Pulling her lunchbag up to her chest, she cautiously took a few more steps forward into the darkness.

"Hello...?" She called. "Is anyone back here?" She had to hold her hands out in front of her to keep from walking into anything, because she was so far into the shadows now that she couldn't even see a foot in front of her face. She grabbed onto the corner of the stall and poked her head inside, squinting.

She couldn't see anything in the dark, and was finally starting to back away as her 'freak out' instinct kicked it, a little late. As she turned around to run back to the door, she felt some sort of hand close around her ankle. She let out a surprised yelp as it pulled her over and she banged her elbows on the floor, but quickly shut her mouth and glared into the dark. She thought she could see a pair of glowing green eyes, but it was hard to see clearly.

She kicked off with her other foot and ran for the door as soon as her ankle was free. "Watch it, creep!" She shouted back to the 'empty' bathroom as she shoved the door open.

"Uh... sorry?" Danny stood directly in front of her, looking startled. His friend, Tucker, as Sam had learned earlier, stood a few feet behind him.

"Danny? What are you doing here?" She wondered, closing the door behind her and eyeing it suspiciously.

"Um... well, Paulina and Star said that some sort of ghost attacked you..." He trailed off. That wasn't _exactly _the truth. It had gone more along the lines of Paulina and Star running into the lunchroom and shouting about how the creepy Goth chick had summoned some sort of ghost in the bathroom when they were trying to do their makeup.

"Did they." She muttered darkly. Danny flinched.

"I, um... just wanted to make sure you were okay."

"And that there was _really_ a ghost." Tucker added. "The usually just make up reasons to call his parents, because it always ends badly. We usually get the rest of the day off school!" He added, grinning.

"Wait... what do Danny's parents have to do with this?" She asked, staring at the two of them blankly.

"Well... my... uh-"

"His parents are professional ghost hunters." Tucker cut in enthusiastically, looking pleased. Danny looked mortified, and it only got worse when Sam burst out laughing. He buried his face in his hands groaning.

Sam paused and looked up. "...Oh. You're serious."

Danny nodded slowly. "So, I guess it was nothing?" He muttered hopefully.

"...What?"

"In the bathroom." Danny added, pointing over her shoulder. "That was just Paulina and Star lying about you and trying to embarrass me, right?" he sounded hopeful.

"Well, actually..." Sam frowned. "It _was_ pretty weird. All the lights went out, and some shadow grabbed me. But... I dunno if it was _ghost_ weird. It could have just been some kids trying to play a prank, couldn't it?"

Danny actually looked surprised, and frowned. "No, that... sounds like ghosts." He admitted, sounding defeated. He pushed the door open a crack and peered into the blackness. He couldn't make anything out anyway and it seriously gave him the creeps, so he shut the door again. "I, uh... I guess we should call my parents." He groaned.

It wasn't until after they showed up that Sam finally understood why Danny was so reluctant to have them come to the school. She couldn't decide whose were worse, hers or his. "Ugh, parents." She shuddered. Tucker was right, the rest of the school ended up getting sent home. Everyone, that is, but Sam, Paulina, and Star. Danny's parents had weird equipment set up all over the hallway, focusing on and inside of the girls bathroom.

Danny and Tucker had fled the scene as soon as his parents had first shown up. Sam had been pretty bitter about being ditched at first, but admittedly, she'd probably have done the same. Besides, they'd barely known each other for a day, it was hardly as if they should have a sense of loyalty yet. They were barely considered friends. That, and the fact that his parents were probably scarier than the actual ghost.

"Okay kids, we want you to tell us _exactly _what happened." Jack Fenton said, interrogating the three girls on the ghost attack while Maddie tended to the equipment. Sam groaned.

"Well, we were like, in the bathroom minding our own business, when this creepy girl comes in, and just starts yelling at us. Then all the lights went off and she like, summoned this ghost with her weird witch magic!" Paulina surmised, waving her hands to emphasize her point.

"Yeah, it was like, totally creepy! She walked in and all the lights blew up! I mean, I though she was trying to kill us or something!" Star added.

"It was _soo_ scary!" Paulina whined.

Sam rolled her eyes. Jack looked dead serious, and started mumbling something about 'witch magic', before turning to Sam. "So, how did you summon the ghost?" He asked, the suddenness and loudness of the question making her jump and almost knocking her over.

"I didn't summon the stupid ghost!" She growled, annoyed. "I walked in and the lights all broke, and these two ran away." She said, jerking her thumb at the other two girls. They glared back at her. "The one stall door opened, so I walked back there to see if there was anyone there. Then someone grabbed my ankle. I kicked them off and left." Jack was staring at her intently. "It was probably just some kid playing a prank." She added, clearly creeped out by him. She decided it was probably best not to mention the glowing green eyes, especially since she wasn't even sure if she'd actually seen them.

He looked like he was about to say something more when Maddie returned, cutting him off. "Jack, honey, can you go find out if the school has any cameras in the stalls?" Sam blinked. Did she seriously just ask that? In any case, Jack nodded enthusiastically and ran off.

Sam looked up at Maddie, frowning. "Uh, I already told him everything. Can I _please_ just leave now?" For the first time, Paulina and Star agreed with her.

"Of course not, girls!" Maddie answered cheerfully. "You still need to go through decontamination!"

Two hours later found a soaking wet, freezing cold, miserable Sam walking home. She was, however, still smiling vindictively to herself. This may or ma not have been due to the fact that she knew Paulina and Star would be in the exact same situation as herself right now.

Finally finding her way back to the new house, she looked up at it, getting her first real look in daylight. Sighing, she shook her head. "It could have been worse. A _lot_ worse." she decided. Walking up the front steps, the opened the front door and tossed her jacket aside. A quick look around told her her parents were nowhere to be seen, and she climbed the stairs up to her bedroom.

Dropping her spider-shaped backpack by her bedroom door, she decided to start unpacking some of her clothes. Two days was enough, and she didn't want to be stuck in the same outfit for three days in a row – especially now that it was soaking wet. Half an hour later, she was dried off and changed into a black and purple tanktop, a new skirt, and new purple stockings, and all of her clothes had been unpacked and put away. She was finally able to remake her bed with her black sheets. She also had deep violet pillow covers with black and silver spiderweb patters across them.

Stepping back and grinning at her work – it was finally starting to feel a bit like her bedroom now – she decided to sit down and pull her schoolwork out. Sitting on her bed with her books spread out around her, she couldn't help but smile to herself. Something eventful had _definitely_ happened at school today, Danny had turned out to be not-so-average-after-all, and glancing down at the book she was assigned in English, _The Madwoman in the Attic_, she had to admit that even the schoolwork might not be so boring. Gothic _and_ feminist. Although she had already read the book, that was over a year ago. She would like having the chance to reread it.

Maybe this move wouldn't be so bad after all.

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><p><strong>Mossmask: Well, okay. To be honest, this looked a lot better in OpenOffice with Times New Roman 10.5 font. It just looks so clean and tidy there. As soon as I posted this I started feeling nervous again. Ugh. I'm apparently having confidence issues withmy first foray into a new fandom, so constructive critisizm is greatly appreciated... As well as positive feedback...! xD<strong>

**~Dash Out!**


	2. Another Day, Another Ghost

The Goth and the Ghost  
>a Danny Phantom fanfiction<br>by The Cinderninja

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><p>Chapter 2: Another Day, Another Ghost<p>

The next day at school, Sam met up with Danny before class – to be honest, it was completely accidental. As it turns out, his locker was right next to hers. Sam was busy stuffing her extra books into her locker when Danny came up from behind her and called out a "Hi, Sam!"

She jumped, startled, and turned around, shutting her locker. "Oh, hi Danny... what are you doing here?"

"This is my locker..." He commented awkwardly, twisting the lock on the locker directly beside hers. Then he shot her a grin as he pulled out his books.

"Oh." Flushing in embarrassment, she quickly changed the topic. "So, Danny. Where were you and Tucker off to so quickly, yesterday?" She asked him, mock accusation in her tone.

Danny apparently didn't pick up on her teasing, and looked down at his feet suddenly as they started walking to class. "Oh. Um, look, I'm sorry we ditched you there. It's just, my parents are... ugh. Well, I'm sure you met them already for yourself." he muttered miserable. Sam could easily tell from the way Danny always talked about his parents that he wasn't remotely impressed with them being around him.

"Oh yeah, we met." She muttered sarcastically. "Two hours in decontamination." she added, doing her best imitation of 'bright and cheerful'.

Danny blanched. "Oh god, they didn't. You're not serious, are you?" If at all possible, he looked even more mortified when Sam shrugged and relented with something like 'more like an hour and a half.' "I am so sorry, Sam." He buried his face in his hands – something Sam noted he did fairly often, especially when his parents were the topic of discussion.

Sam shrugged again, and suddenly burst out laughing. "Really Danny, it's no big deal. I got a _great _first impression." She added with a grin. "Nothing that weird ever happened where I'm from."

"Oh, and weird is _good_?" He muttered.

"Of course it is." Sam answered seriously, still grinning at him. He straightened up and raised an eyebrow, but before he could respond, they were at English class, and Danny swept the door open and bowed theatrically for Sam to enter.

Rolling her eyes, she cuffed him on the head on her way by, ignoring his indignant 'ow!'. Sam and Danny exchanged glances as the class suddenly fell quiet when they entered. Loud and boisterous conversations suddenly became whispered exchanges, and they both caught the frequent and poorly disguised glances in their direction as they made their way to their seats.

Danny noticed Tucker already in his seat, and even he was staring at the two of them oddly. "Tucker!" Danny hissed when he sat down, a second after Sam found her own seat. "What's going on?" He asked.

Tucker shrugged and then glanced between Danny and Sam. "You mean you guys don't know?" He asked. They both shook their heads, confused. "There's been some sort of rumour going around. About Sam summoning that ghost yesterday."

Sam actually laughed, but Danny noticed his friend's silence, and nervous glances. And the fact that he hadn't walked with Danny to his locker this morning. Now he had a suspicion that he knew why. "You don't actually believe that, do you Tuck?" He asked, sounding disappointed.

"What? No!" He answered quickly. With a glance in Sam's direction, which the girl thankfully didn't seem to notice. Danny did. His eyes widened in surprise, before narrowing again to glare at Tucker. "Dude, we need to talk today. At lunch." He added the last part more quietly and turned around to face front, just as the teacher walked in. The rest of the class passed mostly uneventful, save for the continued whispers and glances shot in their direction for the rest of the class.

Sam may have been offended for the first half second after she'd learned about the rumour, but after she'd had the chance to register what Tucker had actually said, and then laugh at it, she'd quickly made her mind up not to let it bother her. She played with her silver bat earrings absently, lost in thought. She already knew from the moment she'd walked into the classroom on her first day that they weren't going to accept her here. There was no individuality or acceptance here, that much was obvious.

In New York, it was almost impossible to have your own individuality, considering the fact that _being different _was what everyone seemed to be trying to do. Sam had decided from the start that she wasn't going to be different just for the sake of being different. She was just going to be herself, no matter what. Now was her chance to prove that much, at least. She definitely suspected that part of her parents decision to move to the small town had been based on their opinion that Goth was just a phase she would grow out of once it stopped being cool.

But hey. If everyone wanted to think that she would summon a ghost every time she caught someone gossiping, who was she to stop them? She still thought it was funny, but also kinda cool. When she was younger, she'd tried a few times to summon all sorts of supernatural creature. Needless to say, it had never actually worked for her. She suddenly grinned. So, now she was 'the spooky Goth kid'? She could have some fun with this.

Finally shaking herself from her thoughts, she pulled her English book out of her backpack, and followed along as the teacher read to the class. She frowned... he really wasn't doing the book justice. He wasn't, apparently, the most enthusiastic person when it came to reading Gothic literature. She had to wonder why he'd even assigned the book in the first place instead of something else.

At the end of the class, she walked up to the front of the room, waving Danny and Tucker along. "You guys go, I'll catch up with you later." Their next period was gym, which for some reason they shared. At her old school, the boys and girls had taken separate gym classes, but here at Casper High the gym classes were so small that there was one class for each grade, with mixed boys and girls. Danny hesitated, but Tucker nodded, grabbed his friends arm, and dragged him off down the hallway.

"Uh, Mr. Lancer?" She began hesitantly, once all of the other kids had left. The teacher looked up, surprised. He apparently hadn't noticed her standing at his desk.

"Ah, Sam Manson. What is it?"

"Well, I was just wondering why you chose this book." She frowned, holding up her own copy she'd brought from home, because the school had been out of extra copies when she joined the class. "When you clearly don't care for it that much."

"What do you mean by that, Manson?" He looked up from the papers he was reading over – she took a glance and saw they were tests. Which she hadn't been here for.

"Well, when you read. It's like you skip over the really important parts. You're not really emphasizing the main theme of the story."

"And you think you could do better?" He didn't sound angry. He sounded intrigued.

"Well... yeah." Sam said. "I've already read the book, and I know what it's about. And I'm a pretty good reader. But to be honest, I think a lot of people could do it better."

"In this class?"

"Of c-" Sam cut herself off and frowned. "Actually... no. No one actually seemed to be paying any attention at all."

"I don't know what things are like at your old school, Sam," he said slowly, putting the stack of papers in his hands down and turning to face her. "But here, not many students show the same enthusiasm for reading that you are. If you think you can change that, then be my guest. Would you mind reading to the class tomorrow?"

Sam suddenly felt herself grinning despite herself. "Hold on, you mean you want me to read to the class from now on?"

Mr. Lancer shook his head slightly. "No, I said you could read next class. We'll see how it goes. But it doesn't hurt to try something new to get students more interested in their classes. Maybe some of your enthusiasm can be passed on. We'll see how things go."

Sam nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah, alright. Thanks, Mr. Lancer!" she called back over her shoulder as she shoved her book back into her bag and ran out the door. She didn't notice his small smile as he shook his head to himself. She was going to read out loud to the class tomorrow, and they were going to pay attention.

For Sam, gym and math passed fairly uneventfully. She kept finding herself getting distracted by strange shadows, or movement by the side of her vision. Aside from one time in gym when she managed to get hit in the head by a volleyball, the distractions didn't cause any trouble. She wrote it off as nothing though. Although at one point, she found herself wondering over the possibility that it could be ghosts, she quickly berated herself for being paranoid.

There was nothing like what had happened on Monday. Just small shadows, flickers of light, and things moving just outside of her vision. Therefor, no ghost. And if it wasn't a ghost, then it was just in her head,and there was no point telling anybody. She didn't want to worry her friends, or have her parents flip out for no good reason. They already did that far too often, and she was still trying to avoid speaking to them as much as she could.

In fact, by the time lunch rolled around again, she was actually finding herself starting to get bored. After what had happened yesterday, she had kind of forgotten that Casper High was still a normal high school, and Amity Park was still a normal small town, and she still had to adjust to life here. Slouching slightly and frowning – in other words, sulking – Sam walked into the cafeteria and found Danny and Tucker at their usual table and started walking over to them.

Before she got there however, she realized that they were talking about _her_, and stopped to listen – why was it that every time she walked in on a conversation lately it was about her?

"You can't seriously believe those stupid rumours, Tuck." Danny glared at his friend.

"No, I don't. We've been having ghost attacks since before she ever showed up. But you can't deny the fact that she's... creepy." He frowned.

"Since when were you superstitious anyway, Tuck? Besides, she's not creepy. She's weird."

"And weird is a _good_ thing?" Tucker muttered.

"Yeah!" Danny grinned, apparently having changed his own mind since this morning.

"Ida know, I just – Oh. Sam!" Tucker suddenly sat up, with that deer-in-headlights look. "How long have you been standing there?" He asked, startled. Danny spun around when Tucker shouted her name.

"Oh... just a few minutes." She muttered before turning back around to leave. Danny was fine, sure, but Tucker clearly didn't like her. Well she was fine with that, she could just sit and eat lunch at a table outside and leave the two to themselves. Sorry for intruding on your friendship.

"Sam! Wait!" Danny called after her, standing up. She ignored him and kept walking, and Danny dropped his lunch tray on the table, running out behind her. Tucker stayed where he was, looking embarrassed and mildly ashamed, before glancing over at Danny's tray. With a shrug, he took his friends meatloaf – untouched and forgotten – and dropped it next to his own.

If Danny or Sam had stayed longer at all, then they might have noticed the shadow growing underneath the table. They, however, were already gone and wouldn't find out about it until a little while later.

* * *

><p>"Sam, come on, wait up!" Sam sighed as she sat down at the picnic table outside, and didn't turn as she felt more then saw Danny sit down beside her. "What is it?" She asked him finally, choosing to break the awkward silence that fell when she'd ignored him.<p>

"I – I'm sorry about Tucker." He said finally, frowning. "I didn't think he'd be like that."

"I did." Sam muttered without looking up from her food.

"What?" Danny sounded surprised, and also a bit defensive now. Yeah, he was trying to apologize for his best friend, but he was still his _best friend. _And he was confused by how angry Sam seemed all of a sudden. "What's that mean?"

"It means I should've known that you'd be so _typical._"

"Typical? Wait a minute, me? What did _I_ do?" He suddenly sounded startled. "Listen, I just came out here to apologize for Tucker. I never did anything wrong! ...Did I?" He asked uncertainly, tone changing in an instant from defensive to doubtful.

Sam sighed. "No, Danny. You didn't. Sorry for yelling at you. I'm just... everything's so different here. I mean, where I'm from, kids are allowed to be who they want. It's cool. And even though my parents refuse to accept me, I had friends who did. Real friends. Then I get totally uprooted and dumped here, and it's like some perfect happy little town. It feels weird... it feel _unreal. _Like everything is so happy and perfect it can't be real. The sort of place that only exists on television. If... you know what I mean." she added quickly, cutting herself off. She flushed, suddenly embarrassed now that she finished her rant.

To her surprise though, Danny just grinned. "I guess I get what you mean. Trust me, it won't feel like some perfect little television town once you've been here a bit longer. And it's... definitely not average." He grinned slightly. "As for me and Tucker... well, I'll be your friend no matter what – unless you suddenly decide to start shoving me in my locker." he paused and frowned, narrowing his eyes at her suspiciously. "You're not, right?"

Sam stared at him for a moment, until he finally grinned, unable to keep a straight face. Realizing he was being sarcastic, she suddenly laughed. "Danny, of course I am. I'm a Goth witch who summons ghosts, and has an evil plot to shove you in your locker. You figured it out."

Danny shook his head sadly. "What a shame." He said solemnly, before looking back up and smiling again. "But seriously, I'm cool with you. I think it's cool that you're different. As for Tucker... well, normally, he would be too." This time Danny's frown was real, and thoughtful. "I honestly have no idea what's gotten into him lately. I swear he's not normally like this."

Sam shook her head at him. "Don't worry about it. I'll be fine. And so will Tucker, I'm sure. Besides, there's nothing wrong with being spooky. To be honest, I think I might be able to have some fun with it."

There was a sudden silence between the two as they both just sat, smiling at each other, but the moment was broken as Tucker burst out of the school doors and came running over to them. "Danny! I've been looking for you everywhere, man! You have to call your parents!"

Danny and Sam both sat upright suddenly, startled. "What? Whats is it?" Danny asked, confused, as Tucker jammed a PDA into his hands. Danny glanced down at it to see the reason for the panic at the same time tucker told him. Tucker had apparently taken pictures of a ghost in the cafeteria on the PDA.

"Dude, she did it, _again._" He said, peeking over Danny's shoulder at Sam. He lowered his voice, not enough to actually stop her from hearing him, but just enough to be conspicuous. "Like, as soon as you guys left, this shadow thing came out from under the lunch table! It knocked it over and everyone freaked out. They evacuated the school, but I couldn't find you guys _anywhere_!"

"Well where is it now?" Danny asked impatiently, ignoring, for now, the fact that his friend had just blamed Sam – again. Sam also did her best to ignore this, and instead settled on clenching her fists angrily. He was already searching for his cell phone in his pocket, and Sam grabbed for Tucker's PDA. Not really paying attention, Danny let her have it.

"Hey," she spoke up, startled. "That's the same thing that attacked me yesterday!"

"How can you be sure? I thought you couldn't see it?" Danny asked, dialling.

"No, I'm sure! This is -" She was cut off as Danny held up his hand for quiet, and winced as his dad answered the phone. He had to hold it away from his face for a moment.

"Um, yeah, dad? That's wonderful, but... uh, can you give the phone to mom?" A few seconds later he continued. "Uh, mom? There's sort of... anotherghostattheschool. Yeah. I guess so. Great." The last word was muttered sarcastically, and quite clearly not meant under any circumstances to be mistaken for actual enthusiasm.

When he hung up the phone, he looked back up to his friends again. "So, uh, Tuck. Where was the ghost last?"

"It was still in the cafeteria when I left!"

"Cool!" Sam grinned enthusiastically. "I wanna go see it!"

"What? No! Bad idea!" Tucker shouted, but Sam was already running towards the school.

"Sam, no, come back!" Danny called, facepalming as she entered the school. "Here we go again." He muttered, chasing after her for the second time that day.

"...Aw man." Tucker muttered, realizing his best friend had just run after a girl, who was running after a ghost. And that as the best friend, it was his responsibility to run after Danny. "You so owe me for this."

By the time he caught up with them, they were already standing outside the cafeteria, peering at the ghost inside through the glass windows all along the wall. Danny was crouched over with his hands on his knees, out of breath, while Sam pumped a fist in the air.

"Ha! I was right! It _is_ him!"

"_Who?"_ Danny asked, annoyed, out of breath, and far closer to the ghost than he ever wanted to be.

"How should I know?" Sam shrugged. "But he's definitely the same one from yesterday."

"Good to know. Now how 'bout we _leave_?" Danny asked, finally standing up straight again and glancing down the empty hallway nervously.

"Like, _before_ the ghost sees us?" Tucker added.

"Oh, good idea. But..." Sam trailed off.

"...But what?" Danny.

"Too late!" Sam shouted, turning and taking off down the hallway.

Spinning to look back into the cafeteria, Danny realized the ghost had turned it's attention from terrorizing the deep freezer against the wall to them. And that he had about half a second to duck before one of the large metal tables came crashing through the window where his head had been less than a second ago. "Uh, Sam? Wait for me!" He cried, jumping back up, grabbing Tucker's wrist and taking off, for the third time in less than an hour, after Sam.

The three of them booked it down the empty hallway, and Danny yelped as it shot some sort of beam at them, which exploded just beside his feet. She beams it shot looked like shadows themselves. It made Danny dizzy to try and look directly at them, or the ghost. Thankfully, that wasn't a problem for any of them at the moment, as they were running as fast as they could in the other direction.

They had almost made it to the front doors when another blast landed in front of Danny, knocking him off his feet and sending him tumbling. He muttered a quick 'ow' under his breath before sitting up and rubbing his head.

"Danny!"

"Watch out!"

"...Huh?" Looking up, Danny blinked at the huge shadow ghost now standing over him. "Aw crud." He pulled his arms over his head and cringed. There were a few more shouts of "Danny!" coming from behind him, a mechanical whine coming from just above him, and then a loud blast that made him jump and open his eyes.

To his surprise, instead of getting blasted by a ghost, it was the ghost getting blasted. By his dad. He felt hands on his shoulders as Tucker and Sam pulled him to his feet, and saw his mom standing just on the other side of the hall. With both of his parents' attention focused on the ghost, and the ghost focused on his dad, Danny's friends were able to pull him outside, where they all stood in silence for a moment, trying to catch their breath.

Then Sam started laughing, and Tucker punched Danny in the arm.

"Ow! What was that for?"

"_That, _was for nearly giving me a heart attack." His friend growled.

Danny grinned at the both of them. "And now you know why I don't like ghosts."

* * *

><p><strong>Mossmask:<strong>** Ah, well. I've decided to start doing authors notes at the bottom of chapters - _only_ at the** **bottoms of chapters. It looks a bit neater that way. Anyway, I don't have too much to say about this right now. Don't expect updates to be as frequent as these. I've got two weeks of school during semester turnaround so I'm literally stuck at home with nothing to do but write all day.**

**So, ah, comments? I'd like to know: Does it feel too slow, or too rushed? I want to know how I'm doing with the pace. just gimme your opinion on how it feels so far. I want it to flow smoothly, but I'm having a hard time deciding how slow or fast to pace it.**

**~Dash Out.**

**Review Replies:**

**SmileyFace: Hnn. Yeah, I'm sorry about any errors. I haven't got the best spell/grammar checker, and I haven't got a beta reader. I do my best, but there are always a few mistakes that slip by. I'll probably tid that up later.**

**Thanks so much for the comment about being in character. One of the reasons I had such a hard time breaking into the DP fandom with my writing was because for the LIFE of me I could not get the characters down. So I tried really hard, and it really pleases me to know that I'm doing alright so far. =3**

**And, I would love to answer your question, but being an anonymous reviewer, I can't message ya. And I don't wanna answer it here because I don't really know what's considered a spoiler or not.  
>If you really wanna know though, you can ask me at graystriperocks hotmail . com<strong>

**Oak Leaf Ninja: Thanks a lot for the comment. ^^**

**CaptainPiika: Heh, yep, apparently. I've been trying for a while.. to write in either fandom, really. I was having a hard time writing anything for a while. So I think I'm gonn a take a (short) break from Sonic right now... :c  
><strong>

**Thanks, I'm glad you took the time to read - and leave a review. I recognized you right away, and was actually a little surprised at first. I'm still not used to knowing people who share the same fandoms as me. Cool! x33  
><strong>


	3. Shadow

The Goth and the Ghost

a Danny Phantom fanfiction  
>by The Cinderninja<p>

* * *

><p>Chapter 3: Shadow<p>

"Good morning sunshine!"

"How are we feeling today, Sammykins?"

Sammykins groaned. "_What _are you people doing in my room at this unearthly hour?" She growled, staring at her alarm clock, which told her it was still five in the morning.

"Now come on, Sam. That's not how you should speak to your parents in the morning. Remember-"

"Yeah, yeah. 'Attitude of Gratitude'. I _know_. Now you've got about ten seconds to tell me what you're doing waking me up at _five in the morning, _before I- auugh." Sam face planted into her pillow, far too tired to come up with any sort of threat or witty remark this early in the morning.

* * *

><p>"Um... wow... Sam. What happened to you?" Danny asked, staring.<p>

Sam, for her part, was a mess. Her stockings were bunched up around her boots, her skirt was tilted down on one side and hiked up on the other, and she was still wearing her black satin pyjama top. Her hair was frizzy and hadn't been pulled back into a pony tail, and she hadn't had time to put her lipstick on that morning. She was doing it now.

And, she was completely soaked. It looked as if she'd jumped into the shower fully dressed – or at least, as dressed as she was. What they didn't know was that that was pretty much what had happened. After getting up at five, Sam had argued with her parents for half an hour and gone back to bed. They woke her up again at six. She tried getting dressed, fell asleep again, and that was when her parents had picked her up and tossed her in the shower.

By the time she'd chased her toaster down (somebody had forgotten to tie it down last night and it made a break for freedom) and managed to make some sort of breakfast, she'd had no time to finish getting ready and had to run out the door to get to school on time.

"My _parents_ happened." She answered, trying to run a brush through her hair and grimacing as it kept pulling through her tangled black mass of hair. "For some reason, they have it in their heads that I need to start getting up at five. I seriously need to get a lock for my bedroom door."

Both boys visibly flinched at her use of the 'f' word.

"_Five?_ As in _five in the morning?_Is that even legal?" Tucker wondered.

Sam found herself grinning despite herself. "I doubt it."

"I kinda wish someone would bother to wake me up in the mornings." Danny mused. "My alarm clock has a _really_ bad habit of not going off." Noticing the disbelieving looks the others gave him, he raised his hands defensively. "Well, not at five, obviously!"

Sam grinned as Danny held ran ahead and opened the front doors, holding them open for Sam and Tucker. "Who says chivalry is dead?" She asked, pulling her hair back and tying it into her regular ponytail. Danny flushed red and Tucker punched him, laughing.

The three walked on to their lockers, and this time, Tucker stayed with them. Sam definitely noticed that he was acting nicer around her and less suspicious. Which was odd, considering that after what happened in the cafeteria yesterday, she would have thought he wouldn't want be near her at all. Oh well.

"So, why did you bother rushing? I mean, you're not even dressed. I woulda figured you'd rather be late and actually get ready." Danny wondered from his locker. At least, he and Tucker usually had no qualms about being late. That is to say, of course they cared, but some days there was nothing you could do about it, and there was no point worrying over something that couldn't be changed.

Sam grinned slowly. "Oh, I really didn't want to be late for English today. Speaking of which, we should hurry." She added, shutting her locker and walking off down the hallway to their shared English class.

"You say that like today's special." Tucker said, frowning. He didn't remember there being anything different about today. "There's not like, a test or something, is there?"

"She said she _didn't_ want to be late, Tuck. It's obviously not a test." Danny gave his friend a look of mock disappointment. "Uh, do we have a supply?" He ventured.

"Nope. You're both wrong." They walked the rest of the way to class with Danny and Tucker making various guesses as to why Sam wanted to be on time today, while Sam just grinned and refused to give them any yes or no answers. "You'll just have to wait and see." She gave them, finally, stepping into the classroom closely followed by the two other boys.

There was a few moments of silence as Sam finished reading. Surprisingly, it was the same silence that had prevailed the entire time Sam had been speaking. Most of the class was watching her in shock. Quite a few students had put there books down partway through the reading and instead watched Sam, caught up in her voice and expressions. She really brought the story to life.

Finally, Mr. Lancer broke the silence. "That was wonderful Sam. Thank you for volunteering to read for us today." Sam grinned self-consciously.

"That was _weird!_" Paulina said. She was creeped out, because even she'd gotten caught up in the Goth's reading. She'd actually... _payed attention _the entire class. _And_ found it interesting. She wondered if maybe she put a spell on the class while she was reading. Just another not to trust the freaky Goth chick.

"That was _cool!"_ Said the girl from the back of the room – Jodi.

"She's dreamy." Grinned one of the nerds, before the boy beside him cuffed him over the head. "Shut up, Mikey."

"That was _awesome!"_ Danny grinned, giving Sam a thumbs up.

"Uh, Mr. Lancer..." Valerie raised her hand, but didn't wait for him to call on her before continuing. "Is she going to be reading the rest of the book in class?"

Mr. Lancer looked thoughtful for a moment before turning to Sam. "Miss Manson, would you mind reading like you did today for a few more classes, until we finish the book?"

"Uh, no! Not at all." She grinned, proud. She wasn't used to getting this much attention, let alone for just reading something out loud. Apparently these kids didn't get much excitement. And in a town with frequent ghost attacks, that was a little bit sad.

"Alright then. Let's take a vote. Who wants me to continue reading." No hands went up. "And who wants Miss Manson to finish the rest of the book?" Nearly the entire class raised their hands – even Dash. In fact, the only two hands that stayed down belonged to Paulina and Star. "In that case, thank you for volunteering, Sam."

* * *

><p>Of course, Sam should have known that the day wouldn't have been a normal one. Not after her first two days here. It seemed like the other student might just be right about her being cursed after all. That was what it felt like to Sam, at least. This time, however, the spook didn't wait until lunch to show up.<p>

Sam and Tucker were standing by Danny's locker before math class as he rifled desperately through the pile of papers stuffed into the bottom. "Aw man, it's gotta be here!" He whined. "I don't have the time to redo this assignment!"

"Translation? You're too lazy to do it again."

"Haha, very funny Tucker. Now get in here and help me look!"

Sam sighed. "Here, if it's that big a deal, you can just use mine." She pulled out a piece of paper from her backpack and handed it to Danny.

"What? Sam, I can't this. Then _you_ won't have the math assignment. It's due today."

"Yeah, but I have an excuse. I'm new. Besides, we got home early because of ghost attacks two days in a row now. I think I'll be fine. Besides, I'll probably be able to redo it before the end of class." She handed it to him again, grinning.

"Sam, I-"

"Plus, she doesn't already have six other outstanding assignments." Tucker felt the need to add, looking smug with himself.

"Yeah, that too." Sam agreed as Danny glared at his so called best friend.

"Well... if you're sure..." Danny trailed off, staring at the paper in her hands. He was weighing his options in his head... It was Sam's work, she worked hard on it... but, he did his, too, for once! He just couldn't find it! And she said she'd be able to get it done again in class, he knew he wouldn't be able to redo it in time... Besides, she had an excuse. He had six outstanding assignments. That seemed to make up his mind for him.

"Thanks Sam!" He grinned, grabbing the work and folding into his math book as Sam and Tucker rolled their eyes.

Tucker grabbed his wrist. "Great, now that's settled, let's hurry up before-"

"Fenton!"

"We are so gonna be late for class." Tucker sighed.

Sam looked up, surprised, as Dash – she recognized him from English and math class - walked up and grabbed Danny, hauling him off the floor by the front of his shirt.

"Oh, uh, _hi _Dash..." Danny grinned. "What's up?" He winced as his back was slammed up against the wall of lockers.

"I don't have my English assignment for tomorrow."

"And this concerns me, why exactly?" Danny winced again as Dash pushed against him harder.

"Because I need yours, Fenton."

Danny actually laughed for a few seconds before answering. "What makes you think that I did mine either?

Dash scowled before dropping him to the floor. "Fine, but if I find out you were lying-"

"Jeez, Dash. Why not just do it yourself? It's not even that hard." Sam scowled at him.

He looked like he was going to say something back to her, before giving her a weird look and storming of down the hallway.

"What was all that about, anyway?" She asked, helping Danny back to his feet.

"Oh, that? That's just Dash being Dash." Danny shrugged.

"Yeah, he's always like that." Tucker agreed.

"Wait, you mean you just _let_ him pick on you like that?"

"Uh, Sam?" Danny gave her a very deadpan look. "Have you _seen_ him? He's like, twice my size. I wouldn't exactly call that 'letting' him. What else am I supposed to do?"

"Oh, I don't know. Tell a teacher? Or your parents?"

Danny shuddered at the mention of his parents.

"We _do_ tell the teacher." Tucker said. "But Dash is star quarterback, so he never gets in trouble."

"And I'm _so_ not getting my parents involved. It's not even a big deal, can we just drop it?" Danny asked, annoyed.

"No way!" Sam growled, grabbing his wrists. "That is like, totally unfair! Someone needs to teach him a lesson!" She was practically shouting, making Danny wince as she stared him down, fuming.

"Sam! Seriously! It's not a-" Anything else Danny might have said was cut off by a scream from around the corner. Danny groaned as the three exchanged glances and took off running town the hall – toward the screaming, of course.

"Why are we always running towards the trouble?" Danny complained as he chased his friends down the hall.

"Wonder what's going on?" Tucker wondered aloud.

"I'll give you three guesses!" Sam shouted as she turned the corner an skidded to a stop.

"Hey Sam, I think he likes you!" Danny grinned from beside her.

In front of them, the Shadow from the day before had Dash and two other kids cornered against the wall. Sam recognized them as Jodi and Mikey from her English class. Dash was holding Mikey out in front of him as some sort of human shield. Sam had to admit he had a point. The stupid Shadow kept showing up wherever she did. Like it was following her around.

"Hey, Shadow!" She shouted, turning it's attention away from the other kids. Jodi and Mikey grinned at her and took off down the hall. Dash gasped when he saw her. "You did this! You're a freak!" And then he too turned tail and ran down the hallway.

"Uh, good job distracting it, Sam, but _now it's after us!"_ Danny cried.

"Yeah, I didn't think this far ahead!" They scattered as the Shadow shot another beam of darkness at the three of them, Danny and Tucker ending up on the opposite side of the hall as Sam. She rolled and got back to her feet, shouting again. "Hey, Shadow, over here!" but the Shadow was ignoring her this time around.

Trying to dial his cell phone, Danny yelped as the ghost shot it out of his hand. "Hey! I had pictures saved on that!" He suddenly ducked as another blast hit the locker beside his head, dissipating quickly in the light.

"Danny, you run that way!" Tucker shoved Danny down the hall, then turned around and started running the other way. The Shadow tried to grab at them, but got distracted when they split up and blinked in confusion.

"Hey, leave them alone!" Sam shouted again, still standing behind the Shadow and trying to get it's attention. It turned to face her, but instead of attacking, it just stood there, motionless. Danny and Tucker already started making their ways back to Sam, being careful not to draw attention to themselves.

"Get out of here!" She hissed at the Shadow. It didn't respond at first, but after a few seconds hesitation, it slowly started to dissipate. Sam's eyes widened in surprise, and so did Danny and Tucker's, behind her. "And _stop following me!"_ she added, waving her fist, as the last of the ghost disappeared from sight.

"Uh, Sam...? You okay?" Danny asked, walking up to her.

"Yeah, I'm fine. How about you guys?" She finally took her eyes off of where the ghost had been standing and turned to face the two boys. "You're both alright?"

"Yeah, we're fine. But what just happened?" Tucker asked.

Sam paused. "I, I really don't know. But I think Danny was right, when he said that it _liked_ me. Or something. It's like it's _following_ me!" she sounded angry, and grossed out, as if she were talking about some sort of ghost stalker. "But, it was also like it was listening to me. It was really weird."

"That _is_ weird." Tucker agreed.

"Uh, guys!" Danny suddenly shouted, jumping between them. He pointed at one of the clocks mounted on the wall.

"Aah! We're fifteen minutes late!" Tucker cried, grabbing Danny and Sam by the wrist and dragging them down the hall.

* * *

><p>"Well, at least we didn't get sent home early again." Sam grinned as she helped Danny and Tucker clean up their Science labs. "We're already halfway through the week and this is the first Science class I actually made it to."<p>

"Sorry if I'm not celebrating Sam, but the only reason we didn't get sent home is because that stupid ghost toasted my cell phone! My parents are going to kill me!" Danny moaned, sitting with his face on the desk. He held up his burnt out cell phone casing to prove his point.

She shrugged. "Oh well. We didn't even need them, anyway."

Tucker nodded suddenly, joining in the conversation as he piled up his books and shoved them in his bag. "Yeah, you just told it to go away. _And it listened._ What's up with that?" He asked.

"I don't know!" She cried. "I have no more idea what's going on than you guys do."

"And it keeps showing up whenever you get _angry._" He added, apparently ignoring her.

"Tuck, drop it." Danny warned him.

"What? You have to admit I have a point."

"So you still think I'm responsible for this thing? Is that it?" Sam growled back.

"No! Guys! Sam, calm down! Tuck, stop talking!" Danny jumped up in between the two, sticking a hand in each of their faces. "Seriously guys, can we just drop it?"

Both of them paused to take a look at Danny, who looked pretty much fed up with both of them, before they both sighed and turned away.

"Yeah, sure." Sam said.

"Whatever." Tucker agreed.

"Look, if we want to find out what's going on, fighting about it isn't going to help us. We should...I dunno, try figuring out what's going on."

Tucker and Sam both nodded grudgingly.

"You know, he's right." Sam said. "Look, Danny. Why don't we go over to your house after school?"

"What? My house? Why?" He was shaking his head, and hands, in a gesture that clearly said Bad-Idea!

"I thought your parents were supposed to be 'ghost experts'." She added air quotations around the words 'ghost' and 'experts', because she wasn't so sure they applied after actually meeting them.

"Uh, no. No. Bad idea! They're not _really_ experts on ghosts. They're more experts on... destroying ghosts. They don't actually know that much about them. They'd never even _seen_ a real ghost before they got the Ghost Portal working."

"Ghost Portal?"

Danny frowned and put his chin in his hands, looking gloomy. "Uh, yeah. Their 'Ghost Portal'. It's how all the ghosts keep getting out of the 'Ghost Zone'. That's where they're from. Apparently. So my parents thought it would be a good idea to make a great big doorway for them to come through whenever they felt like it. Look, I don't know that much about it anyway, can we talk about something else?" Danny asked, obviously irritated by the subject.

"Yeah, sure. Sorry." Sam apologized, trying to hide her grin. A real... Ghost Portal? That sounded pretty cool. Shaking her head quickly, she changed the subject for him. "Alright then, how about we go over to my house? I've got a few books that might be helpful... I dunno how useful they really are, but it won't hurt to look."

They all agreed, and just as the final bell rang. Putting their chairs up on the lab tables, the three of them ran out of the science room together and made their way to the front of the school. They passed Dash and some of his friends on the way out, and Sam heard him telling them about the ghost as she walked by. Apparently he blamed her for summoning it – again, and had spread it to all his friends pretty quick.

Suddenly grinning to herself, she stopped walking. Danny and Tucker didn't notice at first and were already a few steps ahead by the time they noticed. When they turned around, they saw Sam standing in front of Dash, Paulina, and Valerie, and a random assortment of other jocks.

"That's right!" She shouted at him, "and I'll sick him on you again tomorrow if you don't stop picking on Danny!" She put her hands on her hips, grinning widely as Dash and the others ran off, throwing back a few comments of "freak" among other insults. But ran off nonetheless.

* * *

><p>After getting over the initial 'coool!'s of seeing her house – she inwardly decided it was a good thing they saw it now instead of <em>after<em> her parents started renovations – she had brought her friends in through the kitchen.

"Oh, Sam! You brought some friends home! How nice!" And abruptly froze as she heard her mother's voice.

"Oh no..." She shuddered, turning around. "Um, yeah. Mom. This is Tucker... and Danny!" She put on an overly cheery grin, twitching slightly, holding both boys out in front of herself, a hand on each of their shoulders. Both boys lifted up a hand and waved meekly.

"Uh, _hi_, Mrs. Manson...!" Danny grinned up at the woman in front of him, expression frozen in place. He would never have guessed that she and Sam were related.

"Hello Danny. It's nice for Sam to have some nice, _normal _friends. I'm sure you'll be a _good influence_ on her." Her words sounded more like a warning to him. He twitched as Sam yanked him and Tucker both back, trying to back out of the room. "What are you kids here for?" She asked brightly. To be honest, it was creeping Danny out. He decided that, based on her previous statement, it was probably best _not_ to tell the truth.

"Oh, we were, uh, just going to go up to Sam's room. And work on our English projects! Our, uh, normal English projects? For school!" He felt his face twitch again as he tried to hold his grin in place.

"What? I thought we were supposed to be reading about ghosts?" Tucker asked, obliviously.

"Oh, ha, ghosts! What a joker! He's joking." Sam corrected quickly, yanking both of them back quickly and running up the stairs to her room, leaving her mother behind in the kitchen.

"Jeez, Sam." Danny muttered once they were all sitting down on her floor. "You could have warned us about your mom."

"Oh, I dunno." Tucker cut in cheerfully. "She seemed nice enough to me." He was smiling innocently, and apparently genuine as well. The other two just exchanged a confused glance with each other and shrugged.

Standing up, Sam pulled a few boxes off of her shelves. She tossed one over to Tucker. "Here, these are mostly on ghosts, and all things supernatural'" She grinned, putting emphasis on the 'supernatural'. Help me look through them and see if we can find anything like what's been following me around the school. Danny- Danny? What are you doing?" She interrupted herself when she looked up at her other friend.

He was pulling a different box off of her shelf and looking at it oddly. "Uh, Sam? What's in here?" He asked her, turning around and holding the box up.

"I dunno. I think it's one of the ones my parents packed for me." She said, taking it from him. He held on to it after she grabbed it, and she had to tug on it to get him to let go before she could look at the label. On the side, someone had written 'Sam's Weird Stuff' in black marker. "Huh. I have no idea. You can go through it if you want." She shrugged, giving it back. Danny sat down on the floor and opened it, before starting to rifle through it's contents.

Turning back to Tucker, Sam found that he was already starting to go through some of the books and sorting them into piles. There was a larger pile, which he told her were 'pretty much useless' and another, much smaller pile, which he said might have something useful in them.

"We might be at this for a while." She added to the two of them, dropping another two boxes on the floor. "These are all of my books."

"That's alright." Danny said without looking up. "I don't really care. I don't have to be home until ten anyways." He had his own pile of stuff on the floor beside him. He didn't really seem to be looking through it though. He would pull out a book and toss it aside, pull out a handful of assorted stones and such, and drop them on top. There were also a few coins, a candle, a silver charm bracelet - "hey, I've been looking for that!" - and a small dragon figurine.

"Well, you have fun with that, Danny." Sam said, giving him an odd look as she slipped the charm bracelet on over her wrist. "Me and Tuck are gonna look through these." While Tucker kept separating the books into two different piles, Sam grabbed a book from the top of the might-be-useful pile and started flipping through it, leaning back against her bed.

"Hey, Sam? What's this?" Danny spoke up after a few moments of silence. "Huh?" She glanced up and looked over at him. He was holding up some black disk-like stone.

"Uh, Ida know. Lemme see it." Instead of tossing it over, he got up and walked over to her, dropping it into her open hands. It was some sort of obsidian pendant, with a ring near the top where a cord or something could be strung through it. Turning it over in her hands, Sam noticed a stylized _'DP'_ engraved on the side, but when she ran her hand over it, the surface felt smooth.

She couldn't remember ever buying it, and doubted her parents would have given it to her. She shrugged, handing it back to him. "No idea. I don't remember ever seeing it before."

"Oh." he frowned, looking disappointed. "Well, uh... I suppose I can help you and Tucker now. There was nothing else in the box." He jerked his thumb back over his shoulder and pointed at the pile of 'junk' beside the box. Sitting down, he pulled another book off the top of the useful pile and started reading, trying to hide his look of boredom. He kept playing with the stone absentmindedly with his free hand while he read.

By the end of the night, the three of them hadn't found any real information that might help them figure out what the Shadow from school might have been. "That's alright." Sam said, trying to hide her disappointment. "We've still got a lot more books to read. We can look over them some more tomorrow at school."

"Yeah, but in the meantime, we've got to keep you from getting mad." Tucker added.

Danny nodded. "Yeah, every time you get angry, that ghost shows up. So you're gonna have to make yourself stay calm until we can figure out what's going on."

Sam groaned. "Ugh. Yeah, yeah. I'll try. Hopefully we can figure this out soon." It would be a pretty tough week if she couldn't get mad at anyone all week. Or longer. Then again, it might not be so bad if the Shadow kept listening to whatever she told it.

"Well, see ya guys tomorrow." She said as Danny and Tucker left. Danny hesitated at her doorway before frowning, and putting the pendant back down on her table. He held it there for a minute before letting go and turning around. "Uh, bye Sam."

She grinned and watched him leave, before grabbing the stone and following him to the front door. "Hey, Danny?" She called just before he walked down her front steps. He stopped and turned around. "Uh, yeah, Sam?"

"Here." She grinned, holding it out. "I don't even remember getting it. You can have it." she snickered as he grabbed it from her and stuffed it in his pocked.

"Cool! Thanks, Sam!" He grinned, before waving and turning around again, running down her stairs. "See ya tomorrow at school!"

* * *

><p><strong>Mossmask: Alright, I've got a question in regards to updates. Would you rather see new chapters every week, twice a week, biweekly, etc. Would you rather if I updated during the week or on weekends, etc. I just wanna know everyone's opinion here.<strong>

**Also, I have a random question pertaining to when you read. When you read fanfiction, do you hear all of the dialogue parts in the characters' actual voices? And do you visualize the story in the same animation style? Just curious as to how many people actually do that. xD**

**So there ya go, two questions, no reason not to review now. =3  
>Ah, and... I'm sorry if the part with Dash seems awkward. I put if off as long as I could, but I am going to learn how to write him eventually. I have an IMPOSSIBLE time trying to write him in character, so if you noticed anything wrong with what I wrote, or have any idea how to make it seem any less awkward, please let me know. I'm trying desparately to fix it.<strong>

**Thanks all, cya next chapter. (~Cya on the other side~!)**

**~Dash Out :3  
><strong>


	4. The Ghost Portal

The Goth and the Ghost  
>a Danny Phantom fanfiction<br>by The Cinderninja

* * *

><p>Chapter 4: The Ghost Portal<p>

Danny ended up leaving Sam's house at eight, and walked in his own front door a few minutes later. "Hey, Jazz?" He shouted to the house, walking up the stairs to his bedroom. Her head poked out of a doorway down the hall.

"Danny? What is it?"

"Do have like, a cord or something?" He wondered, looking at the pendant in his hands instead of at his sister. When she asked him "for what?" in a confused sounding voice, he held it up for her to see. Walking over to get a better look at it, she grabbed it from him, and he glared at her for taking it without asking.

"Where'd you get this?" She asked.

"Sam gave it to me. Now give it back, it's mine!" He took it back and stuffed it back in his pocket before Jazz could take it away again. She sighed, rolling her eyes at him.

"I don't think so, but I'll go see what I've got." She answered, walking back into her own room. Danny walked into his and put the stone on the desk, sitting down in his chair and resting his chin on his arms, staring at it. He didn't know why he'd found it at Sam's, and something about it frustrated him. Like how he didn't want to put it down, or let other people grab it.

"Here, Danny." He jumped and fell sideways off his chair when Jazz walked in, startling him. Standing up and brushing himself off, he stared at her. In her hand was a thin pale cord. "It's an old shoe lace. Sorry, but that's all I had."

"It's fine." Danny took it from her and sat back down, stringing it through the top of the pendant. Jazz stayed where she was standing behind him for a few minutes, tapping her foot on the floor, before finally rolling her eyes.

"You're welcome." She muttered, leaving.

"Huh?" Danny blinked, looking up. "Oh, _thanks, Jazz!"_ He shouted, tying a knot and holding his makeshift necklace up, before sliding it over his head. He grinned to himself, before walking back downstairs. He'd probably already missed dinner – he usually did when he stayed out late. In those cases, his mom would set something aside for him on the counter.

Finding it was relatively easy, even though the counter was covered in junk. Most of it broken – or working, but it was hard to tell the difference – pieces of machinery. He was about to yell at someone to clean it up before remembering that he was supposed to have done it last night.

Shrugging, he decided he'd do it later. Grabbing his dinner, he had to stop and debate whether or not to microwave it. Eyeing the microwave suspiciously, and remembering what happened _last _time – and most times – that the ecto-powered appliance was used, he decided that he'd rather just eat his food cold.

Dropping his empty plate in the sink a little while later, he grabbed an empty box from the floor in the corner of the kitchen and started sweeping the junk from the counter inside. Once the box was full and the counter was empty he kicked open the door to the lab. "Mom? Dad? You down there?"

"What is it, sweetie?" His mom called back from downstairs.

"Junk delivery." He announced, dropping the box down on a counter next to his dad.

"That stuff's not junk, Danny!" his dad shouted indignantly.

"Uh, right. What is it then? No, wait! I don't want to know!" He realized his mistake too late, and winced when his father's hand came down on his shoulder, stopping him from escaping back up the stairs.

"These are the parts for the new Fenton Thermos!" he stated proudly.

"A thermos?" Danny stared blankly. "You're making a thermos?"

"Not just _any_ thermos, Danny! A _Fenton_ Thermos!"

"Right. Fenton. So what does a thermos have to do with ghosts?" He asked, doubtfully.

"Well, when it's finished, you should be able to trap ghosts inside of it, without them being able to phase back out." His mom explained, subtly prying him out from under his father's grip.

"In a thermos. Right." Danny shook his head slightly, before turning to leave, but stopped when he caught sight of the Ghost Portal. For once, he actually felt slightly interested in it. "Uh... guys? Are you sure it's a good idea to leave that thing open?" He wondered, taking a few steps closer and peering at it. "I mean, if all that stuff you said about it being a... gateway to the 'Ghost Zone', isn't it a bad idea to just leave it wide open like that?"

"Oh, no, silly." His mom responded cheerfully. "No ghosts are going to come through while we're down here. Besides, we're working on making a door for it." She was still smiling at him when she finished, completely oblivious to the blank look on his face.

"Uh. Right. I'm going to bed now. Night mom, dad!" He shouted, running back up the stairs and shutting the door to the lab behind him. "Why can't I have normal parents?" He wondered aloud, rolling his eyes as he climbed the stairs to his own bedroom.

He changed into his pyjamas and climbed into bed, stopping to take his new shoelace-necklace off. He stopped before he could pull it over his head though and hesitated, before deciding to keep it on overnight.

* * *

><p>Danny woke up with a jolt, sitting up in bed. He looked around his room, confused, trying to figure out what woke him up. A quick look at his alarm clock told him it was only 3am. He stood up and walked over to his bedroom door, listening for any noises that might have woken him. He was met with silence. Shrugging it off, Danny turned around to get back into bed.<p>

_I need to go downstairs._

Blinking in confusion, Danny stared at his bedroom door. It was wide open, and he was holding the door knob in his hand. "Uh... okay?" He muttered to himself. "I guess I'm going downstairs?"

He walked down the stairs as softly as he could, wincing as the old steps squeaked loudly every time he put weight on them. Making in downstairs and into the kitchen, he frowned, looking around. "Uh, okay... now what?" He wondered. He looked around, still confused, rubbing his eyes. He stopped when his gaze fell on the door to the basement.

_Down there. I need to go to the lab..._

Danny frowned, but walked forward nonetheless, swinging the heavy metal door open. He left it open behind him as he crept down the steps, staring around at the room wide-eyed. With all of the lights off, the only light in the room came from the wide open Ghost Portal, and lights from a few of the different various machines left on in the lab. "Creepy." He muttered, flinching at the weird shadows cast on the walls and the electric green glow dancing about the room.

The lab creeped him out enough as it was during the day, with his parents down there. He suddenly found himself wondering what on Earth he was doing down here by himself at three in the morning. He was about to turn around and race back up the stairs into his bedroom, but something stopped him. He turned around, until he was facing the Ghost Portal again.

He stared at the glowing hole in the wall doubtfully. Of all the things in the lab, this was what he liked the _least. _Or rather, disliked the most. At least the other stuff was just machinery. And most of it didn't work anyway. He honestly had no idea how his parents had gotten the Ghost Portal working in the first place. He'd never thought it would work when they started building it.

So, if he hated it so much, why was he suddenly standing down here staring at it? Again, he tried to turn around and leave, but something held him in place. And he started walking slowly towards it, reaching up and lifting his necklace over his head.

"Wait," he moaned as he walked closer. "No way!" As soon as he knew what the Ghost Portal was for, he had decided that he never wanted to see what was on the other side. Thankfully, it didn't look like he was about to find out. He stopped walking just as he came to stand in front of it, and stared at the string in his hands for a moment. Then, lifting it up carefully, he held his hand out and stuck it through the Portal.

He winced slightly at first, but relaxed a bit when he realized it didn't hurt. It just felt like he was sticking his arm through a wall of heavy mist. Still, his heart was racing and he was seriously freaked out. He pulled his hand back abruptly, as soon as he felt like he could, and stumbled a few feet backward away from the Portal before falling into a sitting position in the middle of the lab floor.

Looking down at the pendant in his hands, he realized it had taken on a strange sheen and seemed to be glowing slightly. He wondered if the Ghost Portal had done something to it. Before he had a chance to wonder if it might not be such a good idea, he slipped the rope back over his head and looked up, blinking. Looking around the lab again, he suddenly found himself flinching away from every weird shadow cast by the constantly shifting green light.

Climbing to his feet, he continued backing away until his bare feet hit the bottom step. Turning around he ran up the cold metal stairs, tripping twice, and slammed the door behind him. He stopped once the door was closed and took a breath, looking around the kitchen. It creeped him out to think that such a normal looking house could have a giant swirling door to the Unknown in the basement.

He frowned, still confused as to why he'd been down there in the first place. He couldn't really remember much of it anyway, up until the point where he'd pulled his arm back out of the Portal. It felt like he wasn't entirely in control until then. Shuddering slightly, he turned around only to check that the door was shut properly – and locked, before climbing the stairs back up to his bedroom. He shut that door too, before climbing back under his covers and trying to fall back asleep.

* * *

><p>The next day in school, Tucker looked like the only one who'd gotten enough sleep. "Yikes, what's wrong with you two?" He asked the two zombies at their lockers.<p>

"Ugh." Sam groaned. "I stayed up until midnight looking through those books, and still didn't find anything useful. That, and my parents tried to get me up at five again." Danny and Tucker both flinched in sympathy.

"What about you?" Tucker asked, turning to Danny.

"I... I dunno." He hesitated, frowning as he pulled his books out of his locker and slammed it shut. He looked distracted, like his mind was still somewhere else. "I'm not really sure, but I think I woke up in the lab last night."

"Wait, the lab? What were you doing down there? I thought you hated that place." Tucker prodded.

"I _do." _Danny muttered. "That's the thing. I don't really remember going down there. Just running back upstairs." he hesitated again. "It was probably just a dream."

"Wait, lab? What lab?" Sam asked, leaning into their conversation as they walked down the hall.

"Well you know his parents are ghost hunters. They invent stuff, so they've obviously got a lab."

"Obviously." Eye roll.

"That's where the Ghost Portal is." Tucker added.

Danny stopped walking as more memories of the previous night started coming back to him. "The Ghost Portal..." he murmured, glancing down at the pendant he now wore around his neck. It showed no signs of any weird glowing. That much, he admitted, probably had been part of a dream. But still.

"Uh, Danny?" Sam asked, stopping and turning around when she realized he was falling behind. "You still with us?"

"Huh?" He suddenly blinked and started walking again. "Oh, yeah. Sorry. Just thinking."

"About what?"

"The Portal." He answered automatically.

"Yeah. Sam was saying that is sounds really cool. She wants to see it." Tucker said, grinning. Only because he already knew what Danny's reaction would be.

Danny shook his head, looking put off. "Ew, no. It's _not_ cool. It's creepy."

"Um, Danny, hello?" Sam said, poking his shoulder and pointing to herself. "Goth? Creepy _is_ cool."

* * *

><p>Sam and Tucker both noticed that something was off about Danny that day. He kept zoning out and not really paying attention to what they were saying. Three times he got called on in math class and had no idea what the teacher was talking about. In gym he got hit in the head with the volleyball twice because he was just standing around and not paying attention.<p>

By lunch time, they knew something was wrong. So the two of them grabbed him – one on either arm – before he could get to the cafeteria and dragged him outside.

"Uh, guys? What's going on?" He asked suddenly, seemed to snap out of it as they set him down on the picnic table outside.

"That's what were planning on asking you." Sam accused.

"Yeah man. You've been totally out of it!"

"I... have?" Danny asked, looking back and forth between them. "Sorry, I didn't mean to. I'm just distracted is all."

"Yeah, we can tell. But by what?" Sam asked, crossing her arms.

"Nothing, guys! I've just been thinking. It's not a big deal." Danny was starting to get kind of annoyed. Truth be told, he wasn't entirely sure what he'd been thinking about. The whole day had sort of passed in a blur. Everything felt hazy and surreal, like he was still in a dream. He was lightheaded and dizzy. And he kept seeing the Portal when he closed his eyes. In the same creepy light it had been cast it last night. "Hey, I'm not still dreaming, am I?" He asked, suddenly suspicious.

Tucker reached over and pinched him – hard.

"Ow!" Danny slapped his hand away.

"Guess that's a no." Sam commented dryly.

"Okay, okay. Cut it out!" Danny grumbled, standing up. "Sorry if I worried you, but nothing's wrong." He started to walk off, leaving his two friends sitting alone at the table together, completely confused. They both exchanged glances that said 'I've got no idea what's wrong with him' before shrugging and running off after him.

"Danny, we just wanna make sure you're okay!" Sam continued. "You've been really weirding us out."

"Yeah. Can you at least tell us what's wrong?"

"_Nothing is wrong with me."_ He snapped, eyes flashing. He suddenly stopped, taking a breath. "I just have a headache. I think I'm going to go to the nurse." He walked off again, and this time his friends didn't follow him.

Instead of going straight to the nurse, he sat down in front of his locker, leaning his back against it. "And I still don't know what on Earth _happened_ last night." He muttered to himself. "Was that even real, or was it just some lame dream? Augh!" He suddenly shouted, annoyed, running his hands through his messy black hair. "Why are you making such a big deal out of this Fenton? It's probably nothing."

_What I _need _to do is go back outside and apologize to my friends for brushing them off like that._

But as he stood to go back and talk to his friends, he suddenly remembered that dizzy, lightheaded feeling he'd had all day, and leaned back against the locker. "On second though, maybe I _should_ go to the nurse."

Sam and Tucker were only a little worried when Danny never showed up for Science last period, and said so to each other.

"We probably shouldn't worry so much. He said he was fine." Tucker said, trying to convince himself as much as Sam.

"Even though he _obviously_ wasn't." Sam countered bitterly.

"True, but he also said he was going to the nurse. He probably just went home early." Tucker shrugged.

"Fine. We'll go check on him after school though, alright?"

"Sounds good."

Sam was surprised to find that Tucker actually still got along with her fairly well, even when Danny wasn't around to mediate. She wondered when that had happened. And seeing as they both agreed not to worry about Danny any more, she figured she may as well bring it up now while he wasn't around.

"So, Tucker." She said slowly, leaning forward over a beaker of water sitting on a hotplate between the two of them on the desk. "What ever happened to 'she's the scary Goth girl who summons ghosts'? I thought you were totally caught up in that stuff."

"Huh?" Tucker looked up, then flushed slightly when he remembered. "Yeah, well. You have to admit, you _are_ kinda spooky– "

"And proud of it."

"Yeah, and the ghost rumour was just sort of, there. I mean, with nothing to really disprove it, I guess I just got caught up in it."

"Danny said that wasn't like you."

"It wasn't! You were just _really_ creepy, okay?" He stopped when he realized what he'd said again. "But, I mean, creepy is a good thing, now! Uh..."

"It's fine, Tucker." Sam sighed, rolling her eyes. She had to admit he wasn't actually that bad now that she knew him. He just said really stupid things sometimes. "I was just wondering what changed your mind."

"Well, hey. We never said I stopped believing it." He started, then paused to explain when she raised an eyebrow at him. "Hey, you saw that Shadow thing! Even _it_ thinks you're in charge, so there's gotta be _something_ to it. As for when I decided that _you_ were cool, well." He paused and frowned, like he was trying to find a way to explain himself without embarrassing himself further.

"Danny talked to me. He told me to stop believing stupid rumours. And he said I should get to know you better before I started judging."

"Wow. And you were just totally okay with it?"

"Well I trust Danny's judgement a lot more then Paulina and Star's. I realized I was kinda being stupid, so yeah. I got to know you better. And Danny was right, you're actually pretty cool. So friends?"

Sam grinned. "Of course. I thought we already were."

"Well yeah, but now it's official." said Tucker, smugly.

* * *

><p>"Kids!" Jack Fenton shouted when he flung the front door open to greet the two children standing on his front step.<p>

"Hi, Mr. Fenton!" Tucker called back, grinning broadly.

"Uh, hi." Sam said flatly, still remembering their last encounter, at the school. "Is Danny home?"

"Yes, he's just up in his room sleeping right now." Maddie spoke up from the kitchen table, and Jack moved out of the doorway to let Tucker and Sam by.

"Alright, thanks. We're just, uh, gonna go up and see him, okay?" Sam asked, carefully sidestepping around the man and making her escape to the stairs.

"Yeah, thanks!" Tucker called, chasing after her. He paused on the first step. "Uh... is that a Thermos?" He didn't have to wait for an answer, whether or not he wold have wanted to hear it, because at that moment Sam reached over and grabbed his wrist, dragging him up the stairs and into Danny's room.

"Hey, how'd you know which one was Danny's room?" Tucker asked suspiciously.

Sam pointed at the sign on the door which read 'Danny's Room: No Parents or Sisters Allowed' in red permanent marker.

"Oh."

"Hey guys. What are you doing here?" Danny asked from the bed, sitting up and rubbing his eyes.

"Danny? I thought you were sleeping."

"I was." He answered flatly. "Now I'm not."

Sam winced. "Sorry."

He blinked at the both of them. "But... what are you doing here?" He repeated, sounding confused.

"Uh, you were acting weird all day? You went home early? We were worried?" Tucker summed up.

"Oh... yeah. Sorry guys. Especially about how I acted at lunch. I mean, I guess I was kinda rude."

"Yes, you were." Sam said, smiling. "But we accept your apology." She added when she saw him wince at her words. "Are you sure you're okay though?"

"Yeah, I think so." He said sighing. "I've just been feeling weird lately. Everything feels totally unreal." He trailed off.

"And...?" Tucker encouraged.

"And what?" He stared blankly at the two friends sitting at the foot of his bed. Sam facepalmed.

"And there's obviously something else wrong. What's really bothering you?"

Danny gave a small annoyed sound and looked down at his sheets. "And I can't stop thinking about that stupid Ghost Portal. I keep seeing it every time I close my eyes."

"Why would you be thinking about the Portal?" Sam asked, raising an eyebrow inquisitively.

"I don't know! I never thought about it before!" He ran both his hands through his hair. "And now it's like I– " He cut off whatever he was going to say, looking up at the two of them. "I don't know, it's like I just want to look at it again. And I'm worried it'll be like last night."

"Last night?"

"Where I couldn't stop myself." He stopped talking, and frowned, pulling his sheets up around himself.

"Wait, what do you mean?" Tucker asked, looking worried.

Sam frowned thoughtfully. "Danny, I think you need to tell us about this weird 'dream' you had last night."

Danny sighed in defeat, but nodded. "I'm not sure. At first all I could really remember was waking up in the lab and running back to my room, but it kinda came back to me at school today. Something woke me up, and I ended up down in the lab. But it wasn't really... _me_ doing it. Because I didn't want to but I couldn't stop it.

"And then I went down to the lab – I never go to the lab, not really. I hate it down there. But I went down to the lab and stuck my hand in the Portal." He frowned. That wasn't what he wanted to tell them. He wanted to tell them about his necklace, but he couldn't bring himself to mention it. "I... and then... and that was when I sort of, woke up." He finally finished. "After that I just went back to bed."

"Dude, that _is_ weird." Tucker agreed.

"But I'm worried I'll do it again... it's all I've been able to think about today. And I mean, if I couldn't stop myself _last_ time..." He shuddered slightly. "Stupid Portal!" He growled, annoyed. "That stupid thing gives me the creeps!"

Sam and Tucker both laughed, but Danny wasn't trying to be funny. They stayed and talked for a little while longer before Sam and Tucker decided to leave. Danny waved and saw them both down to the front door. His mom and dad were still in the kitchen, working on their stupid Fenton Thermos. He didn't know why they were working in the kitchen instead of the lab, but he didn't really care. In fact, he preferred it the less time they spent down there.

His mom asked if he was going back to bed. He told her he was. She asked if he wanted his dinner brought to him later. He'd said fine. And then he'd climbed the stairs back to his room, shut his door behind him, and sat on his bed. He held his pendant in his hands for a few moments, staring down at it, before finally muttering "Stupid ghosts."

After that he dropped it – but still didn't take it off, and went back to sleep.

* * *

><p><strong>Mossmask: Ah, well. When I read over the last chapter I noticed that it was riddled with small errors in grammar, spelling, and just a lot of missed or incorrect keystrokes. *stupid jamming keyboard*<strong>

**Thanks for all the reviews so far guys~ *gushes* I've never had such a positive response so quickly to a story before. (Mind you, this is my best by a large margin...) In any case, thanks to everyone. I really love you guys.  
><strong>

**Alright, so. As I'm writing Chapter 7, I realize it's mostly filler, and things are going really slow. When I read other stories, do I like slow? Not really, no. So I'm probably going to come up with some sort of inciting action/sudden even that forces the story to step it up.**

**Random Questions (feel free to answer any of them, even if you don't review the rest of the chapter. I think I'm going to start adding random questions to the bottom of each chapter from now on... x3):  
>How did you come up with you penname?<br>When/how did you first get into DP fandom?  
><strong>

**~Dash**


	5. Phantom

The Goth and the Ghost  
>a Danny Phantom fanfiction<br>by The Cinderninja

* * *

><p>Chapter 5: Phantom<p>

Danny woke up with a start, his hand instinctively grabbing for the pendant he wore around his neck. This time, he knew exactly what was happening.

_I need to go to the Portal._

_ No, no, I don't!_ He climbed out of bed, and planted both feet on the ground. But he didn't move from there. After a few short seconds later, he realized he was already outside his bedroom door. He grabbed the banister at the top of the stairs until his knuckles turned white.

_I don't need to go down there!_

_ I need the Portal._

He didn't know why he was having this argument with himself. He _knew_ he didn't want to go see the Portal. But for some reason, at the same time, he also knew that he _needed _to. With a start, he realized he was already most of the ways down the stairs. His hand was still gripping the banister, but it was having roughly the same effect as if you grabbed the banister on an escalator and tried as hard as you could to stop it from moving. In the end, it just didn't work.

Danny sighed as he made his way through the kitchen, resigned, and finally stopped fighting it. "Fine, Danny. Let's go look at the stupid Ghost Portal. If anything happens, it's your fault." He just shrugged in response.

He paused when he opened the door to the basement, remembering how creepy it was last time. He'd remembered what had happened slowly throughout the day, but he hadn't actually remembered how he'd felt. Now it had all come back to him vividly. Waking up and walking through the house with no idea why. Climbing down the stairs to the lab, even though he was trying so hard to turn back around. Standing there, sticking his hand through that thick, green mist. And the whole time, being completely helpless to stop himself. To just turn around and go back upstairs. And finally, waking up. And suddenly everything had seemed so much more real, and he'd been able to run away.

And now here he was, standing in front of the Portal again.

_Why?_

_ Because I need to._

He wasn't sure_ why_ he needed to, but he knew it was something he had to do. So, he pulled his sister's shoestring over his neck, and let the pendant dangle on the string in his hand. Then he held his arm out in front of him and stuck it through the Portal.

The whole time, his mind seemed frozen.

_I shouldn't be here. I shouldn't be doing this. I shouldn't be doing this. I so don't want to do this._

_ Sorry._

The whole time, he was waiting for the same feeling of freedom he'd gotten last night when he'd suddenly been able to pull his arm back and leave. He started to panic when it took longer and longer and didn't come. Finally, he started to feel a tingling in the back of his mind, and everything took on that dimension of realism. Like he was waking up from a dream.

He wrenched his arm back and sent himself toppling backwards from the force. This time he didn't stick around to check out how weird the lab looked. He just pulled the necklace back around his neck and ran up the stairs, shutting the door behind him. He finally made it back to his room and stopped to catch his breath, sitting down on his bed.

He stayed sitting there for a few moment, glaring at the door, as if daring someone to come in to his room right now. "Stupid Portal, stupid ghosts. Stupid Ghost Portal, stupid ghost hunting parents, stupid Shadow, stupid pendant." He didn't even realize he was talking out loud until he finally stopped, and the silence made him shrink down into his sheets.

"...I _hate_ ghosts." He muttered, before tossing to the side to face the wall – facing away from his door, and pulling his comforter up to his chin.

* * *

><p>Danny was mildly disoriented when he woke up that morning. Thankfully though, he'd had a weird dream about a bunch of panda bears trying to make him eat chocolate pudding, so he didn't remember the Portal thing right away. He was even more disoriented when he realized that it was already Friday.<p>

"Whoa, where'd the week go?" He wondered, and actually had to count off the days on his fingers before he could convince himself. "Monday, ghost attack. Tuesday, ghost attack. Wednesday, ghost attack. And then we went to Sam's. And I ended up in the lab. Thursday, I did it again..." He frowned, and suddenly the confused images of panda bears and pudding cups were gone, replaced with memories of trying walking down to the lab again, and being completely unable to stop himself.

"I did it again." He nodded to himself, furrowing his eyebrows. "Why?" He wondered aloud. "I mean, seriously. Why would I do that? This... doesn't make sense!" Suddenly getting frustrated by the lack of logic in his actions, and the apparent inability he had to stop them, he shrugged it off for now. "Whatever."

Getting dressed – the shirt he usually wore to school was apparently 'far too dirty, you've been wearing that all week. Go put that shirt in the laundry right now, Daniel Fenton.'... according to him mom, at least. So he grabbed some other one from his drawer without looking. Is was pretty much the same, anyway. Just a white tshirt, but this one had a symbol like on a 'no smoking' sign, but without the cigarette.

He didn't bother brushing his hair – _Why should I bother? It doesn't need to be brushed every day, it's fine_ – before heading downstairs. He shot a glare at the lab door, as if holding it personally accountable for his actions the night before, before pouring himself a bowl of the most sugary cereal he could find in the kitchen.

And he sat there, at the table, glumly glaring at the door on the opposite side of the room. When he finally finished eating – he took a lot longer then he probably should have, but he lost track of time – he had to grab his bag and run out the door to avoid being late.

And nearly ran right into Tucker. "Ack! Tuck! What are you doing here?" he gasped, startled.

Tucker grabbed his friends wrist and started running down the street. "I'm here to get you! We all decided to walk to school together yesterday. We still need to get Sam, and we're probably going to be late."

"Oh. Wait, we did?" Danny asked, startled. He didn't remember agreeing to that. Not that he didn't want to, he was just confused.

"Yeah, dude. Should have known you wouldn't remember." Tucker rolled his eyes. "You were totally out of it all day."

"Yeah, I know. I got that." Danny answered dryly.

They stopped talking the rest of the way – they didn't have enough breath to talk and run at the same time – and stopped when they arrived at Sam's house, standing at the top of her steps. Danny reached out and rang the doorbell. The two boys didn't have much time to catch their breath – as soon as he pulled his hand away the door was already swinging open.

"Hi Danny! Hi Tucker!" Sam shouted, slamming the door shut and grabbing the two boys by their wrists. "Come on guys, we're gonna be late!" she took off running down the street, apparently oblivious to the two panting boys stumbling along beside her.

When they finally reached the school, they ended up a few minutes early anyway, so Danny and Tucker were allowed to catch their breath by their lockers. Danny was bent over with his hands on his knees, trying to breath, while Tucker was sitting on the floor.

"Oh man... I think I'm gonna hurl." Danny muttered.

"Well don't do it here." Tucker shot back. Danny glared at him.

Sam seemed blissfully ignorant to both boys suffering as she twirled her locker combo and pulled her books out. "So, guys? What's up? Anything interesting happen last night? Tucker?" She paused. "Danny?" they both knew that the question had a bit more weight for Danny.

Danny sighed, and stood back upright now that he was breathing again. Tucker had his breath back as well but decided to stay on the floor, grinning up at any people who nearly tripped over him. "Yeah. I went down to the lab again, if that's what you're asking."

"It is."

Danny crossed his arms. "Look, guys. I told you it was no big deal, I'll figure it out. Can we stop talking about this? You're making an issue when there isn't one."

Tucker and Sam exchanged glances, but finally nodded. "Fine," Sam said, leaning back against her locker. "But if you get all weird on us again today then I'll be making an issue of it again."

"Fine." Danny shot back. "Same goes for you and your stupid Shadow."

Apparently at a stale mate, the three of them jumped as the bell rang. Standing up, Tucker followed after them as they headed off for English class.

Danny tried to focus on Sam as she read to the class. At least here in English it was easier to pay attention. Between Sam and his own mind, Danny found his focus split between 'The _Spectral Selves of_ Charlotte Brontë' and Ghost Portals. Unfortunately, nearer the end of class he found his thoughts drifting further away from Sam and classroom, and more towards the swirling green Portal in his basement. If he'd been able to see himself at that moment, he'd have noticed his eyes fogging over and taking on the same strange sort of light that they always did when he was thinking about the Portal. As it was, however, he didn't even know they did that.

Resting his chin in his hands miserably, his feelings were divided. Between impatience to go home, to get to go downstairs again, excitement to get to see the Portal again, and between fear of exactly the same thing. Because while he wanted the day to end so he could leave, he at the same time was hoping to drag it on for as long as possible so he didn't have to go home and face that stupid Portal again. And instead of excitement at seeing it, he was afraid of having to stare it down again. And not being able to stop himself.

"What's _wrong_ with me?" He muttered to himself under his breath.

"Danny!" Danny sat upright suddenly, startled, and looked around for the source of the voice. It was Sam. She was standing over his desk. "The bell went. Are you still with us?" She sounded worried.

"Yeah, I'm good." He said, standing up and grabbing his bag.

"Did you pay attention at all today during class?" she asked, frowning at him in consternation. "What was I talking about?" She drilled him when he nodded.

He shrugged. "Something about Spectral Selves and dinosaurs."

"... Dinosaurs?" Sam blinked, lost.

"Brontë." Was all Danny said in way of explanation.

Sam facepalmed but decided to let it go. "Close enough. Let's go."

The three of them left and walked off to gym together. Just before the end of class, Danny had a thought occur to him. It was their last day of volleyball – they were playing field hockey next week. So if he wanted to do this, it had to be today. Catching the volleyball instead of sending it back to his partner – some girl with an orange ponytail – he looked around the gym for Tucker. Spotting his friend a few courts over, he retreated to the wall of the gym and walked along the outside until he was standing just behind his friend. Tucker still hadn't noticed him. Grinning, he lifted the volleyball back and tossed it at Tucker, nailing him in the back of the head and knocking his glasses off.

"Ow, what was that for?" He asked, grabbing them back on and looking around for who hit him. His eyes narrowed when he spotted Danny laughing at him from a few feet away. "Danny!"

"Sorry, but now you're not the only one who didn't get hit in the head with the ball this week!" He managed to inform him through his laughs.

"You are so _dead_, Danny!" Tucker grabbed a stray volleyball from the floor and ran after Danny, who'd already taken off with a yelp. Soon enough, through all the stray and deliberately aimed volleyballs, an all out volleyball war had broken out in the gymnasium. The teacher walked in just as Danny and Tucker were running by the doors, just in time to get hit with a ball herself.

"Fenton! Folley! Detention!"

* * *

><p>"Smooth move, guys." Sam said grinning, after class. They'd had to stay behind after gym, and ended up coming into math late, so Sam hadn't really gotten a chance to talk to them until lunch. They'd all unanimously decided to sit outside again. They liked it there because there were a lot fewer people outside during lunch and they could talk more openly. Sam just had to wait for the two guys to buy their lunches before they met up with her outside.<p>

"Danny started it." Tucker sulked.

"But it was soo worth it." The accused grinned.

"At least he's acting more like himself again." Sam amended.

"Yeah, _and_ no Shadow. I'm impressed." Tucker added.

"Huh? Impressed?"

"Yeah. With you. I didn't think you'd be able to keep yourself from getting angry for this long."

"Yeah, well." Sam frowned. She probably would have had some sort of comeback under normal circumstances, but not right now. Because throughout the day the odd shadows and light had been constantly dancing along the edges of her vision. And every time she started to lose her temper they would grow and start to become more solid – and real. That was how she kept herself from getting too angry. So although it seemed like everything was getting better to the others, she still had the constant reminder that something bad might happen every time she got into a foul mood. She crossed her arms unhappily.

"What? That's good, isn't it?" Danny asked, looking up, worried, when he noticed her change in mood.

"Ah, yeah. It's fine. I mean – it's good." Sam nodded. "I'm just worried. I mean, I'm not gonna be able to keep from getting angry forever. We're gonna need to deal with this eventually. And you still need to deal with your own problem." She added pointedly, looking back at him.

But Danny was grinning. "No worries, I already have mine figured out."

"Oh, you do?" Tucker asked, raising an eyebrow and looking up, genuinely curious.

"Yeah." He laughed. "I mean, it's kind of obvious. If I weren't a C student I probably would have thought of it sooner."

"So what is this genius plan?" Sam asked.

"I'm just gonna ask mom and dad to lock the lab before they go to bed." He laughed, apparently pleased with himself. He wasn't going to have to go down to the lab again tonight, so he was totally satisfied. Although there was still a nagging feeling at the back of his mind that something was wrong with this situation, he pushed it as far away as he could.

"Well." Sam said. "That works, I guess."

Tucker nodded. "It's pretty simple."

"Kinda obvious." Sam agreed.

"So, problem solved." Danny finished. "No need to go on about it. What are you guys doing this weekend?" He asked, not changing his tone during the abrupt topic change. It caught the others off guard and they blinked, momentarily confused before Sam continued the conversation.

"Oh, not much. My parents want me out of the house because they're starting renovations, but they don't really care what I do. Well, they do, but I never bother to tell them, so too bad for them, I guess."

Danny and Tucker gave her a deadpan look before Tucker agreed that he was free. "I've got no plans or anything. Why?"

Danny shrugged. "I dunno. I was just thinking maybe we could go to the arcade, or a movie or something. If you guys are up for it."

"I'm down." Sam said instantly.

"Sounds cool." Tucker agreed.

"I think Dead Teacher VI is playing this Saturday." Sam spoke up abruptly, cutting off when she saw the two boys stare at her. "...If you guys are into that sort of thing." She added.

"Uh, yeah." Tucker said in his most Duh!-worthy voice. "But you're the only _girl_ I know who would watch that, too."

"Uh, Tucker? She's the only girl you know."

* * *

><p>Danny realized later that night how odd it would sound – with him randomly asking his parents to lock the lab door. In fact, he almost changed his mind. Especially when he realized they were still down there when he went to bed, and he would have to go downstairs to ask them.<p>

But, staring at the metal door, he remembered the helpless feeling from the previous night and made up his mind. Pushing it open slightly, he peeked down the stairs. "Uh, mom? Dad? You down there?" He called out, though he already knew the answer.

"Hey, Kiddo! Come on down! We've got something really cool to show you!" His dad shouted back up, sighing, Danny pushed the door all the way open and descended the stairs, taking care _not_ to close it behind him. For once, his parents presence in the lab didn't serve to make it any less creepy to him. Especially with the Ghost Portal standing right there in the middle of the room. His parents seemed to be ignoring it completely, to the point where Danny almost doubted it were really there and not a construct of his imagination.

Because honestly, how _could_ they ignore it if they saw the same thing he did? It felt like it was staring through him, and Danny shuddered, feet rooted to the spot. He suddenly remembered what he'd come down here to ask, but couldn't bring himself to say anything. He couldn't look away from the glowing green mist.

"Danny!" His mother's voice suddenly snapped him back to reality and he jumped, turning to face her.

"Huh? What mom?" He asked, sounding a bit lost and totally out of it.

"Danny, are you alright?" She asked worriedly, and walked over to brush his hair off of his face, putting a hand on his forehead.

"Yeah – fine." He said, pushing her hand away, suddenly uncomfortable.

"Your father and I were talking to you." She said, still frowning. She turned to glance over at the Portal – apparently she'd noticed he'd been staring. His eyes followed her own and he gave a little involuntary shiver, but she seemed not to have noticed.

"Oh. Uh, sorry. Look, I just came down to ask if you and dad could lock the door to the lab when you were finished down here?"

Maddie raised an eyebrow at him. "Lock the lab? Well, sure, we can. But what brought this on, Danny?"

"I, uh... nothing! I just was wondering if you could. So..." He hesitated. "You will?"

His mother hesitated, still looking worried, but finally nodded. "Yes, sweetie. We will."

"Okay, cool – thanks!" He turned around and climbed back up the stairs, quickly, turning only once he was out the door to wave to them quickly. "Uh, g'night, guys!" he called, shutting the door behind him. His mother and father both stood where they were a moment longer, staring up at the door confused. Finally exchanging a look, Jack shrugged and went back to work. Maddie sighed but did the same a few moments later.

Danny, for his part, climbed into bed feeling at least a little bit relieved. He was still anxious – worried about what would happen when he tried to go down to the lab tonight, which he didn't doubt he would do. But still relieved through the knowledge that whatever happened, there was a half foot thick steel door between him and the Ghost Portal this time.

* * *

><p>That night, when Danny woke up, he was suddenly overwhelmed by a feeling of anxiety. He didn't know why. He just knew he didn't want to leave his room. He didn't try and stop it though when he found his feet taking him to the stairway that led down to the kitchen.<p>

_Just this one last time. _He promised. Which was odd considering he knew he wouldn't make it all the way downstairs anyway.

In any case, he felt his heart speed up when he reached out and grabbed the handle for the door down to the lab. And then he turned it, and it clicked in place. He turned it again. It clicked again. He grinned despite himself. His mom had remembered to lock it. So now he could go back to bed... right?

He, apparently, had other ideas. He frowned as he placed one hand up against the cold metal of the door. It felt smooth and solid under the bare skin of his palm.

_That's a half foot of solid steel. _He thought to himself. _It's locked. Can't I just go back to bed now?_

_ Not yet..._ he thought back, placing his other hand up against the door beside the first. He stayed there for a moment, just leaning against the door, frowning to himself. Then his eyes flashed, and he felt a tingling sensation begin to spread from his fingertips. He wasn't sure what was going on exactly, but he suddenly had a headache growing from the concentration it took.

Then the next thing he knew, he was stumbling forward. He managed to catch himself before he fell down the flight of stairs. And froze. She sudden fierce light had faded from his eyes, to be replaced with the same cloud of confusion that had been there for the better part of three days, as he turned back to stare at the door.

Still metal. Still there. Still locked.

_Okay. _He decided suddenly, giving up. _I'm still dreaming. I don't care._ He sighed as his feet carried him down the stairs to the basement. His head still felt fogged up, like he was stuck in a dream he couldn't wake up from. He tried to ignore the feeling as best he could, and soon found himself standing back in front of the Portal.

"Hello again." He whispered quietly to the Portal. This time, he acted on his own, without waiting for whatever strange force had been messing with him over the past few days. He reached over and took the necklace off himself. "Yeah, yeah. I know the routine." He muttered quietly, sticking his hand through the Portal. He winced as he felt the familiar wet sensation of sticking his hand through a heavy mist.

He stood there, waiting, for the familiar feeling of his head suddenly clearing and his body being under his own control. The longer time dragged on without it, the more unsure he began to feel. Finally, he started trying to pull his arm back, tugging experimentally at first, but soon trying to yank himself forcefully out of the Portal.

As always, he couldn't do a thing about. He stopped after a few minutes when the feeling of mugginess suddenly grew stronger. He felt the world sway dangerously as a wave of exhaustion swept over him. It came again a few seconds later, but stronger. Finally, he dizzily pulled his hand back, barely even noticing when he dropped the necklace back over his head. He could hardly keep his eyes open now and the whole lab was tilting around him. He failed to notice the glow coming from the pendant he wore, or the sudden flash of light as a pair of silver rings appeared around his waist.

* * *

><p><strong>Mossmask: Ah, well, I started my new English class today. We all performed skits to introduce ourselves. Since I was wearing my cape (everyone loves my cape) me and my parter skitted out the Fun Danny and the... y'know. Other Danny. With the cape. It was great. I got to use my mad alliteration skills and stand on the desks. xD<br>**

**Anyway. Aside from being totally phsyced to be starting my new English class. I hope you like this new chapter. Now that I'm back in school, my updates should be less frequent. I'm going to try and bring it down to once a week, probably on Mondays or Wednesdays or something.**

**Alright. I'd like to hear what you guys think so far. Next chapter is when we finally get to see Phantom (huzzah) and you can all decide to love or hate me for it.  
><strong>

**I'm gonna answer my own questions from last chapter, just 'cos I can. I got my username when I read an old Warriors fanfiction, Welcome to Warrior High. One of the characters, Cinderpaw, was a ninja for absolutely no reason. So I became the Cinderninja. Pretty simple. xD **

**I got into Danny Phantom when I was reading Sonic fanfiction. I was reading a story, turned out to be a crossover. I suddenly got the overwhelming urge to watch Danny Phantom (I'd watched it when it was on TV, but never got super into it), looked it up, and started watching it that insant. Then I kinda became an addict and never stopped watching. xD**

**I do have a question for this chapter, too. I'm sure everyone has that ONE character (or sometimes more) who you just can't write. So, who is it for you? Who is the character(s) who you just have an impossible time writing for or characterizing? For me, it's Dash.**

**Also, ** I'm curious about something. I have a bunch of ideas, or 'challenges', or whatever. I don't really want to make a whole chapter or entire 'fanfiction' dedicated to posting just challenges, that's... werid, to me. But I don't want to do it in author's notes because it'd get long and off topic (they don't already?). I just... I'm not sure what to do with them. Should I post them on my profile? I just dunno. So if anyone's got any input on that. . Thanks guys, apologies for the huge AN, tty all later. :3**  
><strong>

**~Dash**


	6. There's No Such Thing As No Ghosts

The Goth and the Ghost  
>a Danny Phantom fanfiction<br>by The Cinderninja

* * *

><p>Chapter 6: There's no Such Thing as 'No Ghosts'<p>

In the same instant that the rings disappeared, a signal went out from the stone. Somewhere, someone smiled.

* * *

><p>The light disappears, and I fall forward onto my hands and knees. I stay there for a moment before finally sitting up, rubbing my eyes tiredly. Green eyes open slowly as I take in my surroundings. I blink, once, twice, but still my vision won't clear all the way. All I can tell is that I'm somewhere dark. And there is a bright, green light coming from somewhere directly behind me. It feels nice. Comforting.<p>

Finally turning around to look, I see the Ghost Portal, and my eyes widen. "The Ghost Zone." I grin, reaching out a hand, but stop just short of the wall of light. I frown and look down at my hand with sudden unease. In a flash, I remember where the unfamiliar feeling is coming from. "Oh yeah..." I whisper to myself. "I hate that place."

If it weren't for that, I'd probably have charged a lot more power that I had in the first place. As it was though, my discomfort was enough to make me want to avoid it, despite the comforting feeling it gives me. No wonder I'm so exhausted now – I've been subconsciously avoiding it. I've only just charged up enough energy to wake myself up. Form a corporeal form. And I used up a lot of my energy just getting down here.

Looking back up the stairs, I realize that I'm going to have to do so again to get back to bed. I close my eyes again, leaning back against the metal frame of the Portal. I barely understand what's going on, but right now that doesn't bother me. I'm too tired to care and don't want to move from my spot by the Portal. I can feel myself getting stronger just by being near to it.

I finally open my eyes again and let them flicker over to the stairs. It's already exhausting just thinking about going all the way back to bed, but I need to go back eventually. Sighing, I push myself off the floor and float over to the stairs. On the way, a weirdthing sitting on one of the work desks catches my eye. Memories flash. My father.

_"These are the parts for the new Fenton Thermos!"_

_ "You should be able to trap ghosts inside of it."_

I reach out a hand and pick the odd thing up, turning it over in my hands. Suddenly, an idea begins to form in my mind.

_ "I'm not gonna be able to keep from getting angry forever. We're gonna need to deal with this eventually."_

Keeping my hold on the Thermos, I drop back onto the ground and walk up the steps. I rest my free hand on the door, still grasping the Fenton Thermos in the other. It takes me longer than it should have, but I have hardly any power left, and I can't really remember ever doing this before, so I guess I might be wrong.

Feeling slightly dizzy as I stumble through the door, I eventually find the stairs again and manage to pull myself back up to my own bedroom. Closing the door lightly behind myself – I like sleeping with it closed, though I'm not sure why – I find my backpack. I open one of the side pockets and shove the Thermos inside. I'm pretty sure Ill be able to use it soon.

I crawl back into bed and pull the covers up around myself. Green eyes glow, the only light in the dark room as I stare up at the ceiling. I don't understand where I am, or how I got here. My memories confuse me. I feel like I just woke up from a dream, and have yet to sort out my reality from the fiction. I still have a lot to learn. Things I need to understand about who I am, and what's going on.

Exhausted, I release my hold on my form and slip back inside my own mind with a flash of white light. I can figure the rest out in time. For now, I need to rest and make back my lost energy. I focus on what I do know, rather then what I'm unsure of. I know that my name is Danny. I know I have a sister – Jazz. And my parents. I know who my friends are. I know that I am fourteen years old – fourteen years seems like an awfully long time. I can't possibly have been around for that long, can I? I know I'm in the ninth grade. I go to Casper High – a local high school.

I also know that I am a ghost. It doesn't make sense to me now, but I know it has to be true, so I accept it. I know that I am a ghost.

But I also know that I am a boy who hates ghosts. Why is that?

I'll figure it out later.

* * *

><p>Danny woke up slowly that morning. He rolled over a few times and pulled his blankets over his head, trying to shut out the noise of his alarm clock. That worked alright for a few minutes before his sister barged into his room and tore the blankets all away from him. "Hey!"<p>

"Danny, turn your alarm clock off already! It's been going off for five minutes."

Mumbling under his breath, Danny rolled over, reached out, and hit the Snooze button. When he tried to reach back for his covers, they weren't there anymore. "Whaat?" he wondered, finally opening his eyes properly and looking around.

Jazz was standing at the end of his bed, already dressed, holding all of his blankets in a bundle and somehow still crossing her arms. "Danny, you need to get up."

"But... it's a _Saturday!"_ He exclaimed disbelievingly.

"Yeah, and it's also ten in the morning. You need to go shower, and have breakfast. You friends are coming over at noon." She said, tossing his blankets back at him and turning away.

"That's like, two hours away!" He shot back, starting to pull his covers back up.

"And don't even _think_ about going back to bed, Mister. If you're not downstairs and dressed in half an hour I'm coming back up here with an ice cube tray." She called from the hallway without even turning around.

Sitting up in bed and tossing his sheets over the side – any chance of getting back to sleep thoroughly ruined now, Danny rooted through the pile of clean laundry sitting on his desk and rummaged around for his 'weekend clothes'. Actually, his shirt was already sitting on the floor because his mom had made him change earlier. So he just had to grab his green fleece button up and pull it on over top.

Changing out of his pyjamas and grabbing his hat from where he'd last thrown it over a bed post, Danny descended the stairs into the kitchen to find Jazz already there, mixing something in a large bowl on the counter.

"Whatcha doin', Jazz?" He asked, pulling out a chair and leaning back with his feet up on the table.

"Making breakfast. Get your feet off the table." She answered without turning around. "Did you shower yet?"

"Uh, I forgot?" he answered timidly, putting his feet back on the floor.

"Go shower now."

"Jaaazz." He whined.

"No breakfast until after you've showered."

"Fine." Danny sighed, and pushed his chair away from the table, standing up. "Be back soon." He muttered, going back upstairs to shower. He figured it wouldn't hurt to leave his necklace on in the shower. It was just a shoelace and a rock, so it wasn't like the water was bad for it or anything.

Not bothering to really dry off properly before getting dressed – it was sunny out, he'd dry off soon enough anyway – he ran back downstairs. Jazz was just putting a plate of pancakes in the middle of the table.

"Where are mom and dad?" He wondered. Normally on weekends, Maddie would make breakfast, not Jazz. And Jack would eat it all if Danny wasn't downstairs fast enough.

Jazz gave a disapproving frown as Danny grabbed a bunch of pancakes and started ripping them apart with his hands. "They already went out. Ghost hunting. Apparently they got called away for the weekend." It was obvious in her tone that she disapproved of their ghost hunting hobby/career just as much as her brother did. "Use a knife, Danny." She cut in, making a face as her brother picked one of his pancakes up and took a bite out of the side.

He gave her a cheeky grin before drowning his plate in syrup, and stabbing his knife through the centre of the pancake. "What, like this?" He asked, holding it up.

"Ew." Jazz made a face. "You're so gross, Danny."

He rolled his eyes. "Jazz, it's just a pancake."

Looking across the table at Jazz, he caught sight of the basement door over her shoulder, and frowned as his memories of last night came back to him. His memories of... walking through the locked door, and stumbling down the stairs. But that wasn't possible. And he couldn't even recall coming back upstairs, no matter how hard he tried to focus on it. He supposed it must have been a dream. Apparently, his solution had worked if he hadn't gone back to the basement last night.

"Danny? Are you alright?" Jazz asked, suddenly looking up from the book she was reading with a worried expression on her face.

"Huh?" Danny realized he'd stopped eating and was just staring off into space over his sister's shoulder, fork hanging in the air halfway between his plate and his face. "Oh, yeah. Sorry." He shook his head to clear it and focused back on eating. Oh well, maybe his locking the door solution had really worked. As long as he wasn't distracted by thoughts of the Ghost Portal all day, he wasn't going to worry about it.

He grinned, suddenly looking forward to the weekend. No homework, no parents, no distractions, and – hopefully – no ghosts. Just hanging out with his friends.

* * *

><p>Danny met up with Sam and Tucker outside the theatre. They were both already there and waiting when he arrived. "Whoa, how long have you guys been waiting?" He asked, confused.<p>

"Don't worry." Sam said. "I've only been here a few minutes, and Tucker showed up just before you got here. His mom dropped him off." She grinned.

"Oh, cool." Danny grinned.

"Yeah, and she already got the tickets while she was waiting!" Tucker called, pulling two tickets out of his pocket and waving them in front of Danny's face, who reached out and grabbed one from him.

"Come on then guys, let's go before all the good seats get taken!" Sam advised, running off into the theatre.

"Hey, Tucker, you go get the snacks while me and Sam find seats." Danny said, and ran off with Sam down the hallway before Tucker could object. It was only a few minutes later when he arrived in the already darkened theatre, somehow holding two large bags of popcorn and three large sodas in his arms without spilling them.

Danny and Sam were seated right near the middle of the room, and waved him over when they saw him standing in the isle. The trio were relaxed for the first time since the week began. Sam was finally able to feel like she was really part of the group. They were all hanging out together now, that made it official. They were sharing their weekend time with her, and all three of them were enjoying it.

That was good. Sam wasn't expecting to have made friends so quickly. It hadn't been that easy when she'd first started back at ACE – and at that school, she had at least shared more interests with the other students then the kids here at Casper High. She supposed she'd just gotten lucky – really lucky – by meeting these two.

Sam was distracted by her thoughts when she noticed both boys on either side of her grabbing onto her arms tightly, and leaning in towards her. She raised an eyebrow. Neither boy seemed to notice what they were unconsciously doing, and she smirked.

* * *

><p>After the movie ended, Danny, Sam, and Tucker were hanging out in the arcade. It was relatively busy, and hard to walk around in without bumping into other kids. Danny and Tucker were currently playing some sort of racing game while Sam stood between them and watched. A small crowd had gathered around the group as they played, but eventually the words 'GAME OVER' flashed across Tuckers screen in bold black letters before the screen faded to red.<p>

A sign flashed up asking if he wanted to continue. Jumping off the plastic mock-up motorbike, another kid quickly took his place and put more tokens into the machine before the timer ran down. Danny meanwhile was more focused then Sam had ever seen him. It made her want to laugh. He'd been so distracted at school, and plain bored at her house. Yet here he was completely focused on the screen, a confident smirk on his face. Video games, apparently, were his thing.

Tucker caught her grinning and asked "what's up?" Still smiling, she jerked a thumb in Danny's direction. "I've never seen him so focused." she answered. Tucker nodded.

"Sam, he's a boy. Video games are sorta what we do."

She scoffed slightly. "Well, he's a whole lot better then you." She smirked at the indignant expression on Tucker's face. After Danny defeated another couple of kids, and the group had started to accumulate a larger crowd, Sam decided to step up. Waiting for the next kid to lose to Danny – she had no doubt that they would – Sam climbed up on the yellow motorcycle. It tilted as she played, jolting and vibrating and trying to throw her off.

She lasted the longest out of all of the kids but eventually got the 'GAME OVER' screen as well. She wasn't that disappointed – racing games weren't really her thing. To her surprise though, Danny climbed down with her. When she gave him a questioning look, he just shrugged.

Two new kids took their places, and the crowd quickly began to dissipate with an air of disappointment when they realized Danny was leaving. "Wow, Danny. That was pretty impressive." She admitted as the three walked out. Danny shrugged, trying to look nonchalant, but couldn't completely keep the grin from his face.

"Yeah, I guess so." He admitted, shrugging. "Hey, guys, you know what's cool?" He asked suddenly.

"No, what?" Tucker looked up.

"We're having a totally normal weekend." He seemed pleased.

Sam rolled her eyes. "Come on guys. It can't really be that bad." Tucker and Danny both gave a look. A 'Yeah. It can.' look. She raised an eyebrow at them. "Really?" Both boys nodded.

"Yeah." Tucker explained. "Amity Park is like, the third most haunted town in America, or something like that"

Danny nodded. "Between the hauntings and the ghost attacks, add in the fact that my parents are ghost hunters, and I rarely get a full weekend without any 'ghostly activity'." He used air quotes as he spoke, looking far more put off by this then Sam thought he should be.

"Oh, come on." she grinned. "Third most haunted town in America? Really?"

"Or something like that." Tucker reminded her. He wasn't totally sure. Didn't want to be misquoted.

"And you guys don't think that's cool?" She continued. Personally, she thought Amity Park just went up a few notches in her I-can-deal-with-living-here scale. Tucker just looked around, but Danny had a weird expression on his face.

"Uh, no? Seriously," He muttered, "Besides, even if I _might've_ thought ghosts were cool – which I didn't," he added quickly, "my parents sort of ruined that for me." He made another face. "Seriously, trust me. After being dragged off to one supposedly haunted place after another for every family 'vacation', you get really sick of hearing about ghosts." He crossed his arms.

"Wow." Sam pouted at him. "I didn't realize this was such a touchy subject."

"It's not... touchy." Danny relented. "It's just, living in Amity Park – having 'Maddie and Jack Fenton' as my parents, I just wish people would leave the subject alone. It's like I'm obliged to be interested in ghosts. What if I just don't want to talk about them? I want to at least _pretend_ to be a normal teenager sometimes." He finished.

Sam nodded. "Okay, okay. So I guess I get that. You don't want to talk about ghosts..." She trailed off, as if trying to think of something else to talk about, before remembering something. She grinned at Danny, doing her best to look charming, and asked him; "so, tell me a bit about these 'family vacations'?"

A groan from Danny and a snicker from Tucker, but eventually she got what she was looking for. As they walked back to Sam's house – they'd decided to walk instead of bussing even though it took longer. It was a nice day out and it was still mid-afternoon – Danny ended up telling her about one summer two years ago when his parents had taken him and Jazz on a "cross country family road trip" through the States to various locations.

Sam listened aptly, grinning from ear to ear – she hadn't expected to actually get the story out of him. She had looked into a lot of famous hauntings as a kid, but never gotten any chance to _actually_ explore them – she always thought that would be the coolest. She recognized a lot of the places that Danny talked about, but some of them she'd never even heard of before.

Waverly Hills Sanatorium, Eastern State Penitentiary, The Joshua Ward House, the list went on. Sam was, needless to say, excruciatingly jealous. At some points Danny would get really into the story, other times he would just sound bored. He never really went into much detail, and even when he did he was still vague about it. But still, Sam thought it was infinitely cool.

Tucker looked impressed. He wasn't about to say so, but Sam had gotten a lot more out of Danny than he ever had. He didn't know any stories from Danny's family ghost-excursions, except for the few that he got dragged along on as well – benefits of being the best friend, he supposed.

Sam grinned when Danny trailed off as they neared her house. "Danny." She said seriously, trying to suppress a smile as he and Tucker turned to look at her, curious as to what she had to say.

"Um, yes...?"

"You are, by far, the coolest kid I have ever met." She grinned as Danny blushed, suddenly looking away.

"So much for 'not talking about ghosts'." He muttered.

"Yeah, sorry about that. But as you've probably picked up by now, I think ghosts are _very _cool." She smiled smugly. "And if you want, I am more then willing to take your place on the next family trip your parents decide to drag you off on."

They both grinned at that, and Danny shouted "Deal!" instantly. All three were laughing as they walked in Sam's front door. Danny quickly quieted, looking around awkwardly. "Uh,"

"Don't worry." Sam said, apparently reading his mind. "My parents are both out. We can hang out here as long as you like. Though honestly, there isn't too much to do around my house until they finish renovations. And the basement is strictly 'Out of Bounds' while they're taking walls down."

Both boys shrugged, climbing the stairs to her room. "Whatever. I guess we could just read more." Tucker suggested. "More research on your Shadow ghost?"

Sam shrugged and nodded, but cast a glance over to Danny to see what he thought of it.

Smacking his forehead with his open palm, Danny sighed. "Great. More ghosts." He said with mock enthusiasm, but didn't protest. "Sure, why not."

* * *

><p>While the three of them flipped slowly through the books sprawled across Sam's floor, their conversation turned once again to ghosts, much to Danny's chagrin if his dismayed grimace was anything to go by. Sam was curious about the nature of some of the supposed 'hauntings' of Amity Park.<p>

"Well, actual ghost attacks are a lot more rare than the plain old hauntings." Tucker explained.

Danny nodded as he read. "My parents mostly just like to go after the ghosts when they outright attack. They used to be regular ghost investigators – going into hauntings, searching for evidence of paranormal activity, stuff like that. But I suppose they got bored of that. After they finished the Ghost Portal was when they really changed their style and got more... unconventional."

Tucker picked up from there. "I mean, there have always been hauntings, all over the world, for like, ever. But no one's ever really been able to _prove_ that ghosts exist –"

"– Yeah, that's why my parents wanted to create the Portal in the first place. They wanted solid proof. Well, they wanted to 'break through to the other side' or somesuch jazz. But I'm pretty sure they just wanted to prove everyone else wrong for once and for all."

"So, it was only after they finished the Portal that ghosts started showing up – real ghosts. Not just shadows, or voices, or footsteps, the regular haunted house stuff. But... crazy ghost things like that Shadow you saw at school –"

"– Among other things." A nod from both of them. "Like, real, tangible, in-your-face ghosts. People couldn't really deny their existence after that – though I think a few people still do. So, basically," Danny continued on, "my parents make this Portal just to prove ghosts exist, and it pretty much unleashes a bunch of them on the town. So now instead of looking for proof of ghosts and wasting their time investigating tame little hauntings, they spend their time fighting off the 'real deal'." He rolled his eyes.

"And now that we actually _have_ real ghosts and stuff here, nobody really tends to care about the hauntings so much. It's sort of like everyone just forgot about them." Tucker added. "But they're still there."

Sam looked up from her book curiously. "Oh yeah? Tell me about some good Amity Park hauntings."

"There are no 'good hauntings'." Danny muttered from his spot on the floor. Tucker laughed at him, but closed his book, keeping his hand in between the pages to save his spot, and looked up at the ceiling while he thought.

"Uh, lemme see. I think the old movie theatre is supposed to be haunted. The one that closed a few years ago. It kept having fires an stuff. Eventually the whole place got torched in the middle of the night."

Danny nodded. "I remember that. They kept rebuilding the place, but after it burned to the ground, and with all the stupid ghost rumours, the city decided to just leave the lot empty and cut their losses." He leafed through the book and added, absently, "I think it used to be an actual theatre house before they turned it into a movie theatre. Figures." He snorted. "Those places are _always_ haunted."

"Yeah." Tucker agreed. "You never find, like, a haunted arcade, or a haunted mall."

"Always theatre houses. Or asylums, prisons... hospitals..." Danny trailed off.

"Speaking of which," Tucker picked up, "isn't that old abandoned hospital at the edge of town supposed to be haunted?"

"Yup." Danny nodded. "Think so."

"Then there's that house down on Maple Street. It's been empty for like, ages. Back in grade school kids used to dare each other to spend the night in it."

Sam grinned. She remembered when she used to do things like that when she was younger – a lot younger. She'd always thought it was fun to get creeped out. That eerie feeling that made the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. It was great. "So did you guys ever do it?"

"Eh? Do what?" Danny asked absently.

"Stay in the house. Overnight."

"Oh." Danny shook his head.

"We should!" She said suddenly. Danny and Tucker both looked up at her. "What?" She wondered, suddenly feeling vaguely self conscious.

"Well, that's more of a kid thing." Tucker said.

Danny nodded. "Yeah." He agreed quickly. "We sorta grew out of it."

Sam just shook her head, smirking. "Nope, you couldn't have grown out of it. Because you still haven't done it. Besides, _I_ want to go. Are you gonna let me go on my own?" She smirked as both boys sighed.

"Fine, Sam." Danny rolled his eyes. "I don't even think the place is really haunted, anyway. It's just a creepy old house. A lot of the other ghost stories have more merit, anyway.

Tucker nodded. "Like we said, it's sort of a kid thing. But if you really want to." He grinned to himself. Secretly, he'd been disappointed that he'd never gotten to go as a kid. It was just something _all_ of the kids did. No matter what family you were from, the one time most of the kids got along was during the overnight stays at the 'Old Haunted House on Maple Street'. He'd just never done it because of Danny.

Danny had said it was a stupid idea, and someone could get hurt if they stayed in the house without telling any parents where they were – it _was_ old and falling apart. Though Tucker always suspected Danny's reasoning was more ghost related. More specifically, he recognized his friend's classic ghost-avoidance tactics, and just let it slide.

Besides, now that he and Danny were older, it would probably just be fun for the sake of staying out overnight without their parents knowing. _That_ would never get old. And even if they'd both outgrown the idea of the house being haunted, Sam seemed to like it. Oh well.

"Cool!" She smiled, sitting up. "I'll get some sleeping bags together."

Danny and Tucker both stopped and looked up, giving her their full attention for the first time in this back and forth conversation. "Wait, what?"

"You said we could stay there." She clarified.

"Yeah, but. Tonight?"

"Well, sure. Danny said his parents were away from the weekend, so he'll be fine. And I can just sneak out once my parents go to bed. I'm sure you can find a way to get out, too." She nodded to Tucker.

He shrugged reluctantly. "I suppose I can just tell my parents that I'm staying at Danny's place."

Danny sighed, sounding resigned. "So, you mean, we're staying there _tonight?_"

"Yup." Sam said, grinning cheerfully at the two boys. "Okay, Tucker. Do you think you can make it to my place by ten?"

He nodded slowly after a pause to consider. "Yeah, easy."

"Alright. I can sneak out and meet you in the front yard. Then we can both head over to Danny's. Danny, be ready by about quarter after. We'll get your attention somehow, and you can head down and meet us."

Danny nodded, sighing. "Yeah, yeah. Alright. I'll be ready." he muttered.

* * *

><p><strong>Mossmask: Oh. Gosh. Wow. In English class we got into a huge philisophical debate over whether a zombie apocolypse would be Man vs Man, Man vs Nature, Man vs Society, Man vs Fate, Man vs Self, or Man vs Supernatural. We ended up coming up with ways to fit it into every single one. Thenwhen the teacher asked about other conflicts we hadn't brought up, the class came up with stuff like 'Man vs Woman' and 'Machine vs Society'.<strong>

**And it qiockly turned into everyone coming up with coningency plans for said Zombie Apocolypse. Our class now has an official Zombie Apocolypse Contingency Plan, posted in the classroom. I wonder if we'll ever have a zombie drill... hey, at my school, it's not actually unlikely. .**

**Anyway, back on topic here. I'd love some input, and I hope you guys are still liking it so far. I... agh. I was really anxious about it, so I'd love input. Aaack. Anyway, hope you guys liked this chapter. Eep. Please review. **

**Question? What's _your_ Zombie Apocolypse Contingency Plan?  
>I want to hijack a space shuttle and start up a space colony on Mars or something.<br>**

**As well as; What are some of some of the hardest things for you to write? Be it a genre, or specific type of scene, etc. What do you find very challenging? For me, it's romance and fight scenes. I absolutely can't write romance, and I struggle with fight scenes.  
><strong>

**~Cya on the other side,  
>~Dash Out<br>**


	7. Haunted House

The Goth and the Ghost  
>a Danny Phantom fanfiction<br>by The Cinderninja

* * *

><p>Chapter 7: Haunted House<p>

Sam had everything ready by nine thirty. She had three sleeping bags sitting rolled up on her bedroom floor, and a backpack filled with flashlights, food for the morning, a few books, and a few other things she thought might come in useful.

She stuffed everything under her bed before she crawled in, and pretended to be asleep when her mother came in to check on her just before ten. She cracked an eye open and watched as Pamela left her bedroom, shutting the door behind her. As soon as she heard the 'click' of the latch sliding into place, she climbed out of bed and pulled her window open.

A few minutes later she saw Tucker walking down the street looking pretty uncomfortable. Apparently he didn't do this 'sneaking out' thing very often. He kept glancing nervously over his shoulder every few seconds. He came to a stop on the sidewalk in front of her house and she picked up the first sleeping bag and tossed t out the window, making Tucker jump in surprise as it landed a few feet away from him.

He looked up and saw her standing in the window giving him a thumbs up. He returned it with far less enthusiasm, but at least he didn't jump as the second sleeping bag came flying out the window. Once all three bags were on the ground, she threw her backpack over her shoulders and climbed out the window herself. There was a big tree just a few feet away from her window, she could make it easily if she jumped far enough.

Closing the gap easily, she slid down the tree and met Tucker on the ground. He just shook his head at her, looking like he doubted her sanity.

"I can't believe you just jumped out of a second floor window."

"What? There was a tree there." Totally nonchalant.

He just shook his head again, grinning, and the two of them started off towards Danny's house. They got there just a few minutes later, and Sam tossed a rock at his window to get his attention. He appeared in the window a few seconds later, looking startled.

He grinned when he saw them and waved, disappearing from sight again. They both assumed he was coming out to meet them. Inside the house, Danny crept silently down the stairs. He pushed his door open just wide enough to pass through, then walked down the stairs, wincing at each loud creak that emanated from them.

He stopped at the front door to the house. He glanced back over his shoulder at the basement door. He wasn't sure what would happen if he left. Would he walk all the way back home in the middle of the night? He doubted it. Would he sleep normally if he was away from the Portal? He hoped so, but for some reason didn't think that was quite right either. He thought back to that morning. He knew he couldn't have actually gone downstairs, the door was locked. But his dream still scared him.

Danny shook his head, trying to clear it. He convinced himself not to think of the Portal. He'd done an alright job not thinking about it all day. Surely he could go one night, as well? He'd considered taking his necklace off and leaving it at home tonight -it made him horribly uncomfortable. But for some reason, he chose not to. Steeling himself, and trying to convince himself that nothing bad would happen, he stood up straight and grabbed the door handle.

A few moments later he poked his head out the front door, grinning at his friends. He was jittering slightly, but aside from that looked extremely pleased with himself. He had his own backpack slung over his own shoulders – with some food of his own, and a change of clothes.

"I can't believe I'm actually doing this." He whispered to them, grinning from ear to ear. Tucker looked as nervous as Danny was excited. Sam looked at the both of them, amused. "You guys really haven't snuck out before, have you?" She asked.

Both shook their heads. "No way!"

"Uh, why would I?"

She just shook her head and smiled to herself as Danny lead the way and they started their trek to Maple Street. "I can tell I'm going to be a great influence on you guys." she declared proudly.

* * *

><p>They had unrolled their sleeping bags in the middle of the living room. Danny and Tucker sat in the middle of the floor playing Uno while Sam looked around the house. "Hey, guys. Come check this out!" Her voice reached them from somewhere up the stairs. Exchanging a look, the boys placed their cards on the floor and stood up.<p>

"It's my go when we come back." Tucker said firmly, and Danny nodded, rolling his eyes. They each picked up a flashlight from the floor – they had been left on and lying on their sides so that Danny and Tucker could see their card game – and made their way up the stairs to the second floor.

"What is it, Sam?" Danny asked her.

"Just come look." She called back. "Trust me, you'll like it." Apparently, both boys missed the sinister undertones in her voice.

"Yeah, yeah. Where are you?" Danny wondered loudly as they reached the top landing. Both boys shone their flashlights down the hallway, but they couldn't see any Sam. Just a bunch of doors. Some were open a crack, but most were closed.

"Down here. End of the hall."

Danny and Tucker walked toward the door that her voice had come from, at the end of the hallway, both moving their beams of light around. Danny felt paranoid in the dark house and kept swinging his flashlight around, as if he were trying to see everything at once.

He pushed the door open slowly. It hung on rusted old hinges and groaned loudly as it swung open. Poking his head inside the room, he called out Sam's name, but got no response. Venturing further in to the dark room, he aimed the beam from his flashlight into the corners. He noticed a large bookshelf against one wall, covered in dust.

Another shelf had a few dolls on it. Danny really didn't like dolls. He had his reasons – beyond the fact that dolls are undeniably creepy. There was an old piano in the far corner of the room. Danny thought that was cool – a little odd that no one had thought to take it. Stand up piano's were worth a lot! But he supposed it was mostly only kids who came in here and they never really thought about that.

But still no sign of Sam. "Are you sure she's in here?" Tucker asked Danny, startling him and making him jump. Danny tried to hide it and just nodded instead, before remembering that his friend probably couldn't see him in the dark. "Uh, yeah... pretty sure." He answered back in a whisper. He didn't know why – they were all alone here after all – but something about the place just made him feel the need to whisper.

Just as he was about to suggest they leave and explore the rest of the floor, there was a creaking groan from behind them. Both boys spun around, jumping, just in time to hear the door slam shut.

"...Sam?" Tucker. Then he had a thought. Just as he was about to voice his idea out loud to Danny, someone jumped up directly behind them and shouted "Boo!"

Both boys shrieked and jumped halfway out of their skins, dropping their flashlights, before they recognized Sam's maniacal laughter in the dark. Danny's eyes flashed momentarily, but returned to normal a few seconds later when he realized who was there. Now, he was busy trying to get his breathing under control and thinking of a way to rescue his dignity.

Sam was still cackling madly by the time they found their way back downstairs. Tucker and Danny's expressions were stuck somewhere between anger and embarrassment, but they too started laughing after enough time had gone by for their heart rates to return to normal.

"I hate you _so_ much right now." Tucker admitted.

"You guys were hysterical!" Sam snickered. "I mean, yeah, I was trying to scare you, but that reaction? Priceless! I wish I'd had my camera with me." It was a good fifteen minutes before she finally got her mad laughter under control. By then, Danny and Tucker had shed the last remnants of their self-consciousness and admitted that yes, Sam had gotten them pretty good, and that yes, they had both reacted like huge babies.

The three of them explored for a little longer, but nothing exceptionally strange happened during the remainder of the night. After that, they sat and played cards for a bit longer. Before finally going to bed around one in the morning, Sam convinced the three to spend some time telling ghost stories – come on, that was a given, if you were going to stay in a haunted house over night.

Even Danny accepted this as a Universal Fact, and had promised to do his best to do it properly. And to be honest, he was pretty good at telling ghost stories when he put the effort into it. When he didn't make it so obvious that he thought what he was saying was plain old stupid, he actually made it pretty enthralling. At least, that's what Sam though. She quickly deemed him her Favourite Story Teller, at which he blushed and refused to tell any more stories. After all, he had to keep his opinion of ghosts strictly neutral.

If he were too anti-ghost he'd end up sounding like his parents – shudder – but if he sounded too pro-ghost then they'd probably think he were being overshadowed or something ridiculous. To be perfectly honest, he just didn't care. He thought the whole ghost thing was overdone to death – pun not intended.

But here, alone with Tucker and Sam, he was a lot more at ease and didn't care if he got into it a bit. Besides, Sam seemed to think it was cool. Finally though, they did go to sleep. Sam fell asleep almost as soon as the flashlight's were off and she was curled up in her sleeping back.

Tucker and Danny talked for a little while after, but eventually Tucker fell asleep too, leaving Danny to stare off into the darkness on his own. He couldn't sleep. He didn't want to, and he didn't feel like he could be able to. He groaned slightly. He was stressing about this way too much!

But still... somewhere in the back of his head, Danny was scared of what would happen. After a few more silent minutes in the darkness, Danny climbed out of his sleeping bag and dragged it across the floor, so that it was closer to Sam and Tuckers. They had all been in a sort of triangle formation, but now they were in one row with Danny's sleeping bag between the other two. He crawled back in and sat there a while longer.

He was in a strange house – an _old_ house, which could come crashing down at any minute, in the middle of the night, and nobody knew where he was. Except the other two kids there with him. A house that may or may not be haunted – though to be honest, Danny doubted it was. And he hadn't had a normal night's sleep in forever. What if... whatever was going on... happened again? Danny shivered, but eventually he managed to fall asleep. He was just too tired – he hadn't been getting any decent sleep lately.

Danny woke again a few hours later, sitting up abruptly and shivering. It passed quickly, and he tried going back to sleep despite the uncomfortable cold feeling in the pit of his stomach, and the paranoia prickling at the back of his mind – the latter of which feelings he was more than used to.

After a few minutes of trying to fall back asleep however, the feeling returned, making him shiver again. Reluctantly, he climbed out of his sleeping bag. He searched the floor blindly for his flashlight before remembering that he left it with his backpack further away when he moved his sleeping back.

Stumbling back over to where he remembered his stuff being, he crouched down and felt for a flashlight. Flicking it on, he stood back up, shining it over his friends sleeping bodies before turning it back to the rest of the room. He turned a few small circles, trying to illuminate the whole room.

The hair on the back of his neck was standing up, and the paranoid feeling in the back of his mind rose again. He was sorely tempted to wake his sleeping friends but shook his head, convincing himself otherwise. He frowned, wondering why he didn't just go back to sleep, before shivering again. Oh yeah. That was why.

Besides which, the paranoid feeling grew the longer he stood still here. His eyes flashed, and he pulled open his backpack. He took out a thermos – when had he put that in there? – and started walking forwards without consciously making the decision, stepping out of the room with one last glance over his shoulder at his sleeping friends.

As he turned the corner, a flash of light filled the doorway.

* * *

><p>I blink as my eyes instantly adjust to the darkness. I'm not used to being able to see with no light, but at the same time it feels perfectly natural. There's an odd, bright glow. It irritates me. Realizing it's the light from the flashlight still in my hand, I quickly turn it off. My eyes readjust again.<p>

"Hello?" I wonder quietly. There's a ghost here. I don't know how I know, but I do. I can sense it. I try sensing where it is, but apparently it doesn't work that way. In any case, the problem resolves itself for me as I hear the sounds of creaking floorboards echo through the upstairs hallway. I turn, eyes narrowing, and hover over to the staircase. I drop to the floor and begin to climb, holding the banister in one hand, Thermos in the other.

Don't ask me why I chose to walk up the stairs, I don't know the reason. I suppose I just like the feel of climbing stairs, it's fun. I listen for more noise, but none comes. "Hello?" I wonder again, louder this time. Still though, I'm careful not to wake my friends.

I step onto the top landing and look around suspiciously. I don't like this sneaking, and the quiet. It unnerves me. I like a problem you can see, and deal with. It's simple. A door swings open at the end of the hallway and an icy wind sweeps out from inside, tossing my hair back.

I turn and float down the hall. I don't hesitate before entering. I look around, but there's nothing here. This is starting to get on my nerves. It's a ghost, so it's invisible. How am I even supposed to find anything this way? I growl in frustration. And then there's another growl.

Before I can react a weight hits me from behind, knocking me off my feet. I roll onto my back, and just out of the way as the Shadow crashes into the floor where I just was. Hold on – the Shadow? What's it doing here, isn't Sam still asleep? While I'm distracted, the Shadow crashes into my side again, knocking me back to the floor.

_Fight now, worry later._

I sink through the floor just as the Shadow crashes into it again. Soon after however, it begins to seep through as well. I look below me, and realize I'm back where I started – in the same room with Sam and Tucker. I don't want to fight the Shadow here.

To be honest, I don't want to fight the Shadow at all. I'm still exhausted from earlier, and I never got a chance to try and recharge. I'm having a hard enough time as it is, but I don't even know how to fight! But I suppose that's not really a choice that I have right now. I'm going to have to lead it away, so I float backwards through the walls. I mean to lead it outside, but I'm only in the front foyer when it catches up again.

The dark shape crashes down like a wave over top of me, but thick and heavy. It's hard to move through and pushes back when I struggle to get free. I have an odd thought – that it feels like really thick pancake mix. I try to think of a way to fight back, but nothing comes to mind. My chest starts to burn and I think it might be suffocating me – that's strange.

For lack of any better ideas, I kick and flail as hard as I can inside of it. Once, I think I feel my hand break free. I use my free hand to pull myself after it. I can tell I won't be getting out this way, but as my head breaks free, I at least manage to catch my breath.

Breathing deeply, I struggle to hold myself outside for as long as I can, before I grin and let go. Instantly being pulled back inside, I stop fighting and pull my knees up to my chest. Closing my eyes, I concentrate. On what I'm not sure, but at the same time, there is some level at which my instincts take over and I know what I'm doing. I trust those instincts because right now, they're the _only_ part of me that knows what I'm doing.

Focusing on that feeling, I let it grow and spread. My hands are tingling. Finally my lungs protest the lack of air again – my chest feels like it's in a vice – and I open my eyes. My entire body is glowing brightly. When I feel like I can't contain it any longer, I finally let go of all that power.

The results are instant. Still curled into a tight ball, I can feel the sudden pressure gone from my body and take in a deep breath of air. After a few moments the glow dies abruptly and I fall to the floor. I yelp, startled, and struggle to push myself up into a sitting position and look around. I can't see the Shadow – I must have done some decent damage with... whatever I just. But I know better then to think that I've defeated it.

I suddenly remember the Thermos, and realize that I must have dropped it when the Shadow landed on top of me. My eyes quickly scan the room, and I see it – there, it's rolled into the corner. I manage to struggle onto my feet, and drag myself over and pick it up as the Shadow begins to reform. Wisps of dark mist floating towards each other, sticking together. Slowly they grow. As soon as it's large enough, and those green eyes reappear, I uncap the Thermos.

I've never used this before, so I hope I do this right. I aim it at the Shadow, but nothing happens. I shake it and stare inside, but it still won't react. The Shadow is still pulling itself together, staring at me from across the room. I hit it on the side, then get an idea. Frowning, I run my hand over the side. There, a power button. Hoping this works, I aim again and press down.

I actually flinch away and close my eyes as a blue-white beam of light shoots out of the Thermos, and the recoil makes me stumble backwards. Cracking my eyes open, I watch in wonder as the light seems to draw the shadows out from the corners of the floor and ceiling and the back of the room, trapping them inside. The Shadow screams as it's pulled inside – I have a feeling isn't too pleased with me.

Eventually – it feels like an eternity to me, but it probably only lass a few seconds – the light vanishes and the room is instantly cast back into darkness. It only takes my eyes a second to adjust, and I replace the cap, twisting it until it _click_s shut. A dim green light flashes slowly on the side. I don't know what it's for, but I assume it's telling me that the Thermos is occupied.

And I stand there for a moment, not sure what comes next. Then I'm grinning. I don't know why I'm grinning – I probably shouldn't be grinning – but that was fun. Yes, ghosts are still scary. And yeah, I've never done anything like that before. But still, I just let instinct kick in. And it worked out, didn't it? Yeah, really well. I raise a glowing hand, the one holding the Thermos, and look at it.

Then I'm reminded of how exhausted I am as I feel myself sway. I open my eyes – I didn't even notice when I closed them – and realize that I'm leaning on the wall for support. I want to go back now – to wherever it is that I am when I'm not here. I don't know what it is but it's dark and quiet, and I'm able to rest there. But I know I can't just yet. I need to get back to Sam and Tucker first.

I look back down at the Thermos in my hand, green light blinking on the side. I can't say that I really understand exactly what's going on, or what exactly I'm supposed to be. But I think I know what I'm going to do until I can figure that out.

* * *

><p>Sam rolled over in her sleeping bag and opened her eyes a crack. She opened them all the way a second later. She could see a pair of green eyes watching her in the dark. She let out a stifled yelp of surprise.<p>

"Sam?" And then the eyes were gone, replaced by her friend's concerned voice in the dark.

"Danny? Is that you?"

"Yeah. Are you okay? What are you doing awake?" He asked.

She squinted at where he was sitting up in his sleeping bag, but she couldn't make anything out in the dark. She realized that she had probably still been dreaming. "Oh. I'm not sure. Something must have woken me. I'm fine."

"Oh... alright."

"Why are you up?"

"Not sure." He admitted, shrugging, even though she couldn't see the gesture in the dark. "I think I woke up because it was cold or something." He offered, sounding uncertain.

"Danny...? It's not cold." She deadpanned. Actually, if anything it was a little humid. If she weren't sharing the room with two boys, she'd have probably slept without her shirt on tonight – and with a fan on in her bedroom, at home.

"I know." He answered back. After a moment's pause, he whispered again. "I'm going back to sleep."

"Alright. G'night Danny."

"'Night Sam."

"See you in the morning."

Sam turned over and closed her eyes again, drifting off to sleep again. She never heard the sound of Danny's sleeping bag shifting around though, so she suspected that he was still sitting up when she fell back asleep.

As far as it mattered, Sam was right in her assumption. Danny stayed sitting up for a while later, genuinely confused. He _did_ remember waking up because of the cold, but he didn't remember getting out of his blankets. For some reason though, the next thing he knew he was sitting up in his sleeping bag, wide awake, staring at Sam through the dark with only the foggiest memories of how he'd gotten there.

Even though he found it unsettling, he supposed he had been having odd nights for the better part of the week. Besides, it could easily be explained away by the fact that he was still half asleep, and disoriented from waking up in the middle of a strange house. At least this time he knew it wasn't anything ghostly.

* * *

><p><strong>Mossmask: Oh Danny. You're so silly.<strong>

**Well guys, I went over this a few times, I changed a few scenes and rewrote some parts completely. I hope it turned out alright... input is always good, yes.**

**As for the question. Who's your favourite character? From DP, or anything else. And how come?**

**For me, it always tends to be the main characters - yeah, I'm so original. I can't help it. Danny, Sonic, Kamina (not really the main character, but still). I think it's 'cos I relate to them the most... I always like the characters who I watch and when they do or say things can actually see myself doing the exact same thing. With MLP, it's Rainbow Dash. We're pratically identical, gosh. (But I was Dash before she was).**

**Anyway, yeah. So here's the new chapter, I really hope you like it. I guess I'll probably be updating once or twice a week, but if I do go two a week, then I'll try to keep them decently spaced out.**

**~Dash  
><strong>


	8. The Ghost Zone

The Goth and the Ghost  
>a Danny Phantom fanfiction<br>by The Cinderninja

* * *

><p>Chapter 8: The Ghost Zone<p>

I think ghosts are able to sense each other. That must be the case. It would explain how I knew the Shadow was there last night. But, more then that, I think it would explain _why_ the Shadow was there. I've been thinking about that. I mean, Sam was sleeping, so it didn't have any reason to attack, right?

The way I see it, it must have known I was a ghost. Ghosts are pretty territorial. And possessive. Yknow? That's what my parents say, anyway. I don't think I'm like that though, am I? Then again, maybe I just haven't been a ghost for very long.

Anyway, with the whole 'ghost sense' train of though, this is what I ended up with. If that ghost attached itself to Sam for some reason – who knows why – then it would explain why it was at the house. It really has been following Sam around... If it can somehow tell I'm a ghost, then it's just being protective of Sam. The stupid ghost doesn't want me near her.

And now I'm stuck. See, I have it in the Thermos. The Thermos is sitting on my desk. My house was the first on the way home, so I said goodbye to Sam and Tucker and came up to my room. Then I took the Thermos out. I set it there on my desk. Now I'm sitting on my bed trying to figure out what to do with it.

I know what I'm supposed to do. I'm supposed to send it back into the Ghost Zone. I know mom and dad would love to get a ghost, but they'd wonder where I got it. I don't want to tell them. They'd also want to destroy it, or take it apart or something terrible. And while I might not like the guy, I'm still a ghost. I don't want that.

But my parents still haven't finished building the door. If I let it go, it'll just come right back out, find Sam again, and probably be pretty upset with me. I don't know what to do with it.

* * *

><p>Sam was busy helping with the renovations on Sunday, so she was stuck inside the house for most of the day. Danny and Tucker vegged out playing Doomed online for the better part of the day. Danny had actually been tempted to just sleep all day. For some reason he was exhausted.<p>

Not to mention, he'd been feeling weird all day. Everything had that strange dreamlike quality. When he touched things, they didn't feel real, or solid. He had a really strange numb sensation all over. And he felt so dizzy and lightheaded all the time. That was the worst. He felt like he was out of phase with the rest of reality or something. That was the best way to put it. It was probably just because he hadn't been getting enough sleep.

He groaned as he reacted a half second too slowly, – _again –_ and his character on screen vanished in a fuzz of pixels. Sighing, he shut the game off.

"Sorry Tuck." He muttered to himself. "But, I'm just not up for this right now." Holding down the power button, he booted the computer down before climbing into bed. He lay there for a few minutes staring at his ceiling, unable to actually sleep.

He was tired, his head felt muzzy, and he didn't want to _do_ anything. There was no way he would actually read something, his eyes ached from staring at the computer screen, and he shuddered at the very thought of doing homework. And now he couldn't sleep either. Who sleeps in the middle of the day?

Groaning in frustration he rolled over and sat up in bed, throwing his legs over the side. He glanced over at the window. It _was_ nice out. Maybe he should go outside. But his friends were busy. He didn't really have anything to do. He wondered where Jazz was.

Figuring he might be able to go bother her for a bit if nothing else, he threw his door open and walked down the stairs. Glancing at the clock on the wall, he realized it was already late afternoon. He'd wasted most of the day playing video games without even realizing it. He shook his head and looked around the kitchen.

He stopped when he noticed the basement door. He'd been looking at it an awful lot, lately. Ugh. But still, he felt a sudden compulsion to go over to it. Not like he usually had, this felt more like his own idea. At least, he was pretty sure it was. It was a little difficult to tell, which bothered him.

He tried to shrug it off and walked over to the door, placing one hand against it like he had the other night, looking at it strangely. He was focused on the door and trying to remember the feeling from the other night. He suddenly realized how strange he was being and felt self-conscious, but just before he pulled himself away he stumbled as his hand slipped forward through the door.

And this time he was wide awake. There was no way that just happened, but he _knew_ he wasn't dreaming. Danny yelped and pulled his hand back like he'd burned it, shaking it to get rid of the pins-and-needles sensation. He whimpered slightly as he backed away from the door, before stopping and shaking his head firmly. He still felt like a fool, but at least now he knew he wasn't crazy.

Besides, living with a family of ghost hunters, weirder things had happened. Well. Not quite, but things with a similar level of weirdness, definitely. He actually considered telling his parents about what had happened, but quickly stopped that thought before if could develop into anything. No way – his parents were to be used as a last resort only.

He resolved to himself not to tell anyone else about it until he could figure out what was going on. He eyed his hand warily before sighing and walking outside to drag his bike out of the garage.

* * *

><p>Jazz returned home from the library a few hours later with a pile of books and gone straight to her room. She barely even acknowledged her brother lying on the couch in the living room watching TV, with his feet up on the coffee table. The house was basically silent until the sound of the garage door opening brought a dazed Danny back into the real world.<p>

He looked around for a second, trying to figure out what he'd heard, when the sound of the GAV grinding against the side of the garage made him wince. He decided against walking outside, and waited for his parents to come in instead.

"Hey, Danny!" His mom greeted him when he met them at the door. He grimaced when his dad came in and slapped a hand on his shoulder, making him stumble.

"Danny-boy!" He shouted excitedly. "Why don't you come help us unload the GAV?"

Danny sighed, knowing it wasn't really a suggestion, and followed his parents back outside to help unload. "So, where were you guys?" He wondered, grabbing the nearest crate of equipment from the open GAV and nearly loosing his balance under it's weight.

"Oh, didn't Jazz tell you, sweetie?" His mom asked, reading something off the side of a small metal box covered in flashing lights.

"Something about ghosts." Danny answered blandly, kicking the front door open. "Where do you guys want this stuff?" He added, hoping they wouldn't say basement and groaning when they did.

"Oh, yeah. Well, we got called in to Chicago. They said it was really important that we leave right away, so we didn't really have time to say bye."

Danny dropped his box on a table and shook his arms out. He glanced over at his mom – still looking worried by something she was reading on the box, and his dad – fiddling with something on the side of a tacky, ridiculously large ectogun. "Oh. Swell. How'd it go?" He asked, not really all that curious.

He gasped, suddenly feeling very cold as his mom pressed some sort of release and a greenish-grey mist filled up a glass-like box container sitting on the table. He peered over his moms shoulder at it. "What's _that _supposed to be?" He wondered aloud. It certainly didn't look like any ghost he'd seen. Then again, he hadn't seen very many...

"This is the ghost we picked up in Chicago." His mom spoke slowly, and mostly to herself. For some reason, she sounded disappointed.

"Well, what's left of it!" Jack added loudly, grinning as if he'd just made a fantastic joke. Maddie grimaced.

"Yes, well. What's left of it." She concurred somewhat morosely. "But I'm still gonna see what sort of samples we can get from... this." She finished, gesturing at the box sadly. Oh. So that was it. She was upset that they still didn't have a 'living' ghost to... Danny didn't know what they'd do to it. Dissect it or something, he guessed. He found it somewhat ironic that the ghost was _too_ dead for her.

"Okay, um... _ew." _He made a face. A little grossed out, he decided that now would be as good a time as any to leave, and backtracked it to the stairs. "I'm gonna go upstairs and do... something." He commented on his way out.

The rest of the night was fairly uneventful until he was getting ready for bed. He'd sat down with his homework for a bit – but mostly just doodle in the margins – until getting called down for dinner. He'd tried doing that weird trick with his hand again, but it hadn't worked. Now he was back in his pyjamas sitting on his bed.

Feeling an unexpected wave of dizziness and nausea, he pitched forward and nearly fell off his bed. Instead he caught himself on the edge of the bed, his head tilting down as his eyes drifted shut. This time, however, he caught sight of the silver rings around his waist before blacking out, and swore not to forget them. Because this time he knew he wasn't dreaming.

* * *

><p>I push myself away from my bed, feeling lightheaded. I'm still pretty weak from before, but at least I think I've figure out what to do with the Shadow ghost. The only problem with my brilliant idea is that it involves going into the Ghost Zone. And as creepy as that place is, I do still remember how nice it feels to be near it. I probably still wouldn't go near the place if it weren't for that, but as it is, I'm running off of practically no energy here, and am actually looking forward to the chance to recharge myself a bit.<p>

So, finally making the decision in my mind, and spending an extra few minutes convincing myself not to change my mind, I reach out and grab the Thermos from my desk. I walk down the first flight of stairs without worrying too much about being seen. Jazz is in her own room – probably sleeping or reading or something – and mom and dad were still working in the basement.

I stop I reach the door. I don't bother checking if it's locked or not – it wouldn't matter. I can't open it anyway, otherwise they'd notice me. So instead, I phase invisibly through the door. I stand on that first step for a few seconds before convincing myself to keep walking. Mom and dad are both just standing there, totally oblivious to me. Whoa. It's actually kinda cool, but still, my heart rate's gone crazy.

I make my way down the stairs and slip silently passed the both of them, standing in the glow of the Ghost Portal. It's already making me feel a lot better, some of the leftover exhaustion slipping away. With one last glance over my shoulder at my parents, I walk forward through the Portal. The first thing I notice is how cold it is. It was almost instantaneous – that green fog seriously chilled me. The second thing I notice is how green it is. Everywhere. It's a little overwhelming. Finally, I realize how hard it is to breath. The air – if that's even what this is – is really thick. It's not impossible, but it feels like trying to breath in a room full of steam, and it's still uncomfortable.

I take a shaky breath, choking on it slightly because of the thick mist everywhere, and wave my free hand in front of my face. I'm trying to dissipate some of the annoying green fog so I can see, but it doesn't help at all. I glance nervously back over my shoulder, and I'm surprised that I can still see the Portal perfectly clearly. I can't see anything on the other side – it looks the same as it had from the lab. A swirling green wall.

Huh. Weird. For some reason, the fog isn't obscuring my vision at all. In that case, why is everything so green everywhere? Who knows, maybe that was all the Ghost Zone is. An endless landscape of green. The thought unsettles me, and I shiver. "This place is seriously creepy." I mutter under my breath.

As I finally start forward, checking that I can still see the Portal over my shoulder every so often, another thought occurs to me. _If this is the Ghost Zone, then where are all the ghosts? _Again, I'm unsettled. After a few minutes I notice, to my surprise, some sort of path unwinding somewhere below me. Again, I can see it perfectly clearly through the fog, regardless of how thick it initially seemed.

I float downwards warily, until my feet touch the cold path. It looks like it's just made of some black rock, or something. A random stoney path just floating here in the Ghost Zone. But it's the first thing I've seen in here besides the Portal, so I decide to follow it. I don't want to get lost in here.

I don't want to lose sight of the Portal, but I know that I'm going to have to. My whole idea pretty much centered aroun me dropping the Shadow off far enough away that'd it'd have a hard time finding it's way back. I don't know how well it'll work, but it was the best idea I could come up with. The only problem with that idea being the fact that I've never been here before. How am I supposed to find my way back...? Even though I'm sticking to the path I found, I can't help but be nervous once the Portal is out of sight and I'm left wandering through the Ghost Zone alone.

Although, I quickly realize that it's not completely empty. At first, I just notice a few doors floating around in the air – to be honest, it actually looks kinda funny. Then, the further in I walk, the more dense it becomes. There are far more doors, they're closer together – and there are a few random buildings floating around as well. All sorts of shapes, sizes, styles. This whole place is strange.

I haven't seen any other ghosts yet though, at least, not close up. I'm pretty sure though that I've seen a few shapes floating around in the distance. I haven't been able to get a good look though. I'm not complaining. By now, I'm far enough in that I think it's okay to release the Shadow. At least, hope it is, because I don't want to go any further. I stop walking abruptly and glance around nervously.

Then I hold the Thermos out in front of myself, and go invisible before lifting the top and pressing the release switch. I watch as the Shadow shoots out and forms together in the air. It looks confused and spins around a few times before narrowing it's green eyes. A few moments longer and it slowly drifts off – not along the path, it floats away in some random direction.

I still wait a few seconds after it's out of sight before letting myself fade back into visibility – I don't want it following me back. That would defeat the purpose of coming in here. I turn back around to face the way I came from, and let myself drift in that direction.

After a while, I start to worry. I should at least be within sight of the Portal by now, shouldn't I? But I'm probably worrying for no reason. I didn't really pay attention to how long I spent walking in. I try to calm myself down as my paranoia grows – I know myself. I panic more then I need to. Plus this place can't be good for my nerves.

Finally, the path abruptly ends. It just cuts off, dropping into the swirling green mist. Now I know something can't be right. I could still see the Portal from the path last time. It should be ahead of me somewhere. Nervously glancing back over my shoulder, I hover in place just in front of the drop off, before finally convincing myself to go forward again.

I'm temped to twist around and check where I am, but I force myself not to. There's nothing around me now but the green mist – if I get turned around I'll have no idea how to find my way back. So I just keep drifting forward. Just as I'm about to convince myself to turn back around, the Portal finally comes into sight.

"Yes!" I cry, pumping a fist in the air in victory. I'm actually a little bit surprised with myself. That I went all the way into the Ghost Zone and found my way back by myself. It didn't occur to me until now how bad an idea that had been. In any case, I'm done now, and I shoot forward, grinning like a moron.

I finally put on the brakes just outside the Portal, remembering just in time to check if mom and dad were still in the lab – it definitely wouldn't be a good idea to randomly fly out into the middle of the lab while they were both standing there. So, once again going invisible, I poke my head through the wall of mist and into the lab. I find it dark and empty.

The rest of my body follows soon after as I walk back into the lab, tossing the now empty Thermos in the air and catching it. That actually... didn't turn out too bad. And I'm secretly a little bit pleased with myself for pulling it all off on my own. _And_ not getting caugh. I mean, I've never done anything like that before. Heh. I make my way up to my bedroom, still feeling a bit giddy from going into the Ghost Zone. The feeling wears off soon enough though, when I think back to earlier that day...

When I'd been trying to work intangibility. But as a human. That wasn't what confused me... what confused me was how, well... _confused_ I'd been. It was like there were two sides to my mind. As a ghost, I could remember both sides clearly. But for some reason, as a human, it was different. It was like I forgot everything. I realized something else as well. I could remember everything I did, true. But I wasn't sure why. I could remember events, but not m own thoughts or feelings.

It was like I was seeing someone elses memories. And the whole thing confused me. Confused me and worried me. Because sometimes it seemed like I wasn't even the same person. But who else would I be? Because if I know anything, then I know who I am. That would be like having a whole life's worth of memories and then one day being told that they belong to someone else. It's like he doesn't even know I'm here.

_He. _See...? I'd started thinking about us as two separate people. It frustrates me, because I refuse to believe that we actually are – I actually am. I growl quietly under my breath, annoyed. I realize that I don't think I understand what's going on as a ghost any more then I do as a human. I just want to know why it feels like something is wrong.

Suddenly frustrated, I toss the Thermos over to where my backpack is and it lands on top of it, rolling onto the floor with a dull _clunk_. I climb under the covers of my bed and pull them up tight around myself, glaring at the far wall. I try to fall asleep – I don't bother changing back. I just don't want to right now. It doesn't work at first. The bed feels annoying and uncomfortable instead of comforting, and I don't want to stay under the covers.

I force myself to anyway, letting my eyes drift over to the alarm clock on my side table. I watch minutes flash by – fourty something – before I finally feel myself start to drift off. As my eyes finally do shut, around 1am (it was just after midnight when I came back through the Portal), the familiar rings return, surprising me. I hadn't done that on purpose.

The next surprise is worse. I watch them flash over my body, changing me back into my human self. The thing is, I don't understand where I'm watching from. My guess is that the transformation was automatc when I fell asleep. Danny is still asleep in his – _my – _bed. I'm watching from somewhere off to the side. This has never happened before.

I hold one arm out in front of myself and look through it. It's mostly opaque. I'm... extremely confused. This isn't how it's supposed to work, but I don't really know how to fix it. So I stay there for a few moments before getting bored. I let myself drift down to the floor and walk over to the bed. I lean over the side and stare at my own face, asleep. I have no idea how this is happening – have I mentioned that yet?

"Well _this_ is new." I whisper quietly, still staring at the person sleeping in my bed.

That night, Danny dreamed about the Ghost Zone.

* * *

><p><strong>Mossmask: I'm going to apologize, because I found this chapter wasn't as good as it could have been. I'm not sure what it was <em>exactly<em>, but I _know_ that this chapter was subpar, especially compared to some of the others that I've posted. I did have a few problems while I was writing it, ugh, and I'm sorry. If anyone's got any ideas to fix it, feel free and I'll try to improve it.**

**Aside from that... I think the most eventful thing in this chapter is basically Danny and Phantom finally starting to clue in to each other. Anyway, I can't even tell if this chapter was too slow, or too rushed. I just know there was something wrong about it. It's frustrating and I can't get my brain to work straight right now. Psssh, oh, and what on earth is happening near the end? Er, it should make more sense next chapter.  
><strong>

**Again. I'm... sorry. I don't even have a very good question right now, because I'm so bloody tired. Gimme a minute to think... nope, I got nothing. Sorry. I had a good one I wanted to ask with my next chapter, but I can't remember it anymore.**

**Oh, next chapter might be a little late. I've got some schoolwork I need to catch up on. I'll try an' get it out on time though. Cya on the other side.**

**~Dash Out  
><strong>


	9. Sam's Suspicions

**Mossmask: ...Huuuh. I was listening to Sonic in Sydney when I wrote this, and almost called Sam and Tucker, Sonic and Tails by accident. That would have been a pretty epic derp. Maybe I should wait for my brain to start up again before I write this... _Naaah._**

**Oh, this _might_ confuse some people, so I'm going to explain it here first. There's one spot in here where Phantom's part is in past tense, but then switches back to present? That's because there's a bit of a time overlap. It switched from Danny's part to Phantom's, but it starts of with his pov further back in the chapter. It switched to present tense once Phantom's part catches up with where the story last left off, with Danny... does that make sense?**

**Anyway, guys, please do point out if you notice anything spectacularly wrong here. I ended up getting sick, and having my braces readjusted all at the same time (as well as trying to catch up on that homework I mentioned last chapter), so I haven't been getting much sleep and I'm living off of painkillers. Thus said, by brain is NOT working at 100% right now, so I wouldn't upt it past myself to make some pretty stupid mistakes. I tried my best to edit, but there's always that something that manages to slip by.**

**~Cya on the other side~**

* * *

><p>The Goth and the Ghost<br>a Danny Phantom fanfiction  
>by The Cinderninja<p>

* * *

><p>Chapter 9: Sam's Suspicions<p>

I'm confused, and a little bit afraid. I mean, I'm a nervous kid by nature. Factor in that I'm now standing beside my own bed watching myself sleep, and you can see where I'm coming from. Sure, not much about me was normal, but this was decidedly a _lot more _'not normal' then most of the other things. Plus, I don't know what to do about it. How on Earth do I fix this?

I end up sitting there on the bed most of the night. Before I even realize, it's morning. Jazz comes in. I start when I realize she's there, because I hadn't noticed her come in. But she doesn't even seem to notice me. And that surprises me, because I hadn't gone invisible. I glance down at myself, and sure enough. I'm still there. Still translucent, but still there. Maybe it's a ghost thing. Weird.

And then she's waking me – the other me – the human Danny – up. That's just weird, because he opens his eyes, stretches, and tosses a pillow at her like nothing's wrong. That's not the weird part. The weird part is, I always remember doing those things. I always feel like it's myself doing them. But now I _know_ it's not. Because I'm out here watching him. And he's just acting like nothing's out of the ordinary, and I don't understand it.

Jazz leaves. Danny gets up. He's still more asleep than awake, but then something happens. I know Jazz acted like I wasn't even there, but as he's climbing out of bed, Danny looks up and our eyes meet. He just sort of... stops. I think I know how he feels though, because I totally freeze up. Both of us are just staring, and he looks like he's about to freak. _Well,_ I suppose, _I guess whatever stops Jazz from noticing me doesn't work on Danny._ Maybe it's because we're the same person. I like that idea – I like anything that supports me being him. And visa versa.

Before he gets the chance though – to freak, that is, I shush him frantically, and disappear. Well, I just went invisible. I hope that it works, now that I'm actually trying. He looks confused and suspicious, but he's not looking at me anymore. He's looking around his bedroom and rubbing his eyes, shaking hid head.

Now I'm not confused and afraid. I'm angry, and suspicious. I don't know why. It just sort of hit me. It's like the feelings aren't exactly mine, but I feel them anyway. It only takes me a second to figure out where they're coming from. Danny – the Danny on the bed. The Danny who's still staring suspiciously around his room as he gets dressed, as if he still knows I'm in here.

He's mad, and blames me for all the weirdness lately. Thinking back on it, I realize that _is_ sort of the case. But it's not exactly my fault! Anyway, it's really strange, being able to watch him like this, but feel his feelings. I wonder if the same goes for his thoughts and stuff, but I'm not gonna try and find out. That just seems too strange.

* * *

><p>Danny was seriously freaked. It's not every day you wake up with a ghost in your room. But for some reason, the ghost had seemed familiar – even though Danny knew he'd never seen him before in his life. It was making him uncomfortable. And he'd gotten strange shivers when they'd been staring at each other. The ghost had seemed just as freaked as he was.<p>

Danny remembered how it shushed him before vanishing – he wasn't sure why he'd listened. Especially now, when he still had this strange feeling. It was sort of like goosebumps, sort of like the hairs on your neck and arms standing up. Sort of shivers. But not quite any of the three. He just knew that something was majorly not-how-it-should-be.

He knew it was still _here._ But he didn't know why. Nor did he know why he didn't just call his parents. Surely they'd be able to do _something_. But again, he just... didn't want to. "Are you still in here?" He whispered to his room, looking around through narrowed eyes once he was ready to go. He got nothing in the form of an answer, and sighed, shaking his head. He felt foolish, standing here talking to an empty room. He turned and shut the door behind him, leaving.

And as he went downstairs, the feeling followed him. He kept glancing over his shoulder even though there was nothing there. His sister shot him a strange look at the breakfast table, and he realized he was acting weird. He tried his best to ignore the feeling and act normal for her sake. He had been pretty strange lately and he knew it, and he didn't doubt that she'd noticed as well.

He had to leave for school earlier then Jazz did – he had to catch the bus, she just took her car – so he waved goobye and left while she was still sitting at the table finishing writing notes for some paper or another. He met up with Sam and Tucker on the way, and the three of them walked to school together. Danny kept stopping and turning to look over his shoulder, but each time there was nothing there.

"Uh, Danny? What're you doing?" Sam wondered, giving him a strange look when she caught him glancing backward down the empty street.

"Huh? Oh, nothing. I just thought I saw something." He mumbled quietly. He tried his best to ignore the feeling the rest of the walk, and his friends let it slip. Sam and Tucker had already forgotten about it by the time they arrived at school, and even Danny was able to forget about the nagging feeling of being watched when faced with the far more real feeling of being stuffed in his locker.

Danny sighed and waited patiently as Tucker dialed his combination, tumbling face first to the floor when his locker door was swung open. "Pleasant." He commented from the floor, propping his chin up up on his hands, elbows leaning on the floor. Sam hauled him to his feet and the three walked off to English together, already firm in the knowledge that they would once again, be late.

The worst part was that Sam could probably actually make it to class on time if she didn't choose to wait around for the two boys every morning. She didn't seem to care though and didn't bug them about it, so neither chose to bring it up.

Danny tapped his pencil against his desk as Sam read to the class, occasionally jotting something down whenever he noticed anything he thought might be related to 'theme' or 'message'. He didn't really see the point of all this in English class. He could read. He could write pretty decently too, when it came down to it. So what was with school's obsessions to over-analyze everything and tear it apart to find some sort of 'deeper meaning' or message or something. Couldn't they just read some cool action-story, say "hey, that was cool", and be done with it?

Finally though, Sam finished – unfortunately, this was to be her last day reading for the class, and Danny wasn't exactly looking forward to tomorrow's class when Mr. Lancer would have the whole class to talk all himself. He couldn't help but groan quietly as Sam returned to her seat beside him. He'd managed to keep his attention focused between Sam and his paper for majority of the class while he wrote and she read, but during those last few minutes while Lancer went on about uncontrollable passion and madness, he couldn't help but glance over his shoulder once or twice, certain that he'd seen something moving just outside his vision.

Those were the exact same problems that Sam hadn't been having at all. She had no idea why, but for some reason, the odd flickers of light and darkness and strange shadows that seemed to creep just around the edges of her vision for the past week were nowhere to be seen. It was pleasant, but at the same time oddly unsettling.

It was a while before anything else strange happened, but being who and where they were, strangeness was inevitable. The trio was now sitting in math class, and Danny was pretty zoned out. He'd spent a good portion of the period just staring at his pencil in his hand. He dropped it on the floor four times before the teacher made any comment about it. Apparently embarrassed, Danny had flushed slightly and shoved the pencil back in his pencil case. He half payed attention to the lesson, but seriously? Math? One could only be so attentive.

It was a few minutes later that Danny felt a wave of coldness sweep over him. He crossed his arms and shivered as his breath fogged in the air. He frowned and turned to glance at his friends, but no one else seemed to be noticing anything strange. In fact, even he wouldn't have known anything was wrong – he blinked in surprise when he realized the cold feeling had gone as suddenly as it had come, but decided to let it go.

A little while later – a few minutes, at least, Danny gave a startled squeak, spinning around and tumbling sideways out of his chair. Awkward silence descended as the class turned to look at him. After one boy broke it by coughing, a few students began to snicker. Danny was blushing furiously and scrambling to get back into his seat – at the same time rubbing the sore tailbone he'd landed on. He could have sworn he'd seen someone standing over his shoulder, and it had startled him. Again though, there was nothing there, and Danny found himself growing increasingly irritated. _What on Earth is going on?_

"Danny..." His math teacher frowned at him. "Maybe you should wait outside in the hall."

Danny groaned, but didn't argue. Great. Now he was going to get in trouble, too. Sighing, he dragged himself across the classroom and out the door. He slouched in the hall, leaning against the wall just outside the classroom. Then he felt some sort of _tug_ or something, on his arm. He stumbled slightly, looking around in confusion. He thought he spotted the ghost from his bedroom, but half a second and a flash of light later, it was gone. Then he slowly slumped further down against the wall as he began shivering, eyes sliding shut tiredly.

When they opened again, they'd flashed to green.

* * *

><p>I blinked in surprise when our ghost sense went off. Hey, that's what I call it and I'm sticking to it. That's pretty much what it is, right? So anyway, I'd pretty much spent my day just floating around and watching other-Danny. Besides that, there wasn't much <em>to<em> do. I didn't bother keeping myself invisible, seeing as Danny was the only person who seemed to be able to see me anyway. Though I do think he noticed me a few times.

Anyway, I realized that I wasn't sure what to do about it – the ghost sense, the ghost. I can't do much of anything like this... weird, out-of-body thing I've been doing all day. I found out pretty quickly that I can't interact with other objects. I can't even stand on the floor without falling right through. Which obviously means there's nothing I can do about any ghost, not without somehow putting myself back together. Yikes.

Regardless, I decided it wouldn't hurt to check it out. So with one last glance at my human-kid-self, I leaned back and floated backwards through the door. I glanced around the hall, wondering where on earth the ghost might be. It occurred to me that I had no idea what sort of range this 'ghost-sense' thing had. The ghost could be anywhere! Aah, well. _Listen for the screams_, I supposed, drifting casually down the hallway, poking my head through most of the doors I passed.

"Ghost? Hello? Hellooo... ghooosst?" I called out as I wandered, wondering absently if other ghosts would be able to see me, or if I'd be as invisible to them as I was to the humans. I wondered why there were no signs of it anywhere. Maybe it was just a fluke? I glanced down and frowned as I realized that I was slowly but steadily becoming more and more translucent. Seemed to fade faster the further away I got from Danny. Huh.

Finally, it unnerved me to the point that I decide I'd just check a few more rooms – to the end of this hallway – and turn back. I stuck my head through another closed door and felt a sudden chill. I blinked, and drifted the rest of the way into the room. It was a science lab, was it was empty at the moment and all of the lights were off. I drifted further into the room when a softly glowing shape rose up from behind one of the counters.

Ahah! The ghost! Well, at least it didn't seem to be causing any trouble. At least, not at the moment. I frowned, hovering over until I was right in front of it. It didn't look like much – just some random floating octopus or something. Definitely not much compared to Sam's Shadow.

"Hey, you! Ghost... thing... guy. Yeah, you... Hey!" A few seconds of waving my arms later, and no signs of acknowledgement. Well, that answered that question. I suppose I'd need to figure out how to stick myself back together to deal with this one. Unfortunately, I had no idea how to do that. Oh well, this thing looked pretty easy to handle... if anything, I could convince Danny to Thermos it himself. _Huh... yeah, good luck with that_. That's sarcasm, by the way. I don't think I'd go for that. Oh well, worth a shot.

I turned to float back down to the math class I'd come from, subconsciously thankful as I regained what little substance I had. The disappearing thing wasn't exactly cool. I grinned when I spotted him standing outside the classroom – this would be easier than I'd thought! At least now I didn't have to worry about figuring out how to talk to him without making my whole math class think we'd lost our mind.

But as I grabbed his arm to drag him down the hall, a flash of light blinded me. It barely lasted a fraction of a second, though I was admittedly a bit dazed after. However... when I open my eyes again and see my chest, and arms, and legs... and everything where it should be – as _solid_ as it should be, I realize that whatever happened, I'm back where I should be!

"Ha!" I grin, pumping my fist slightly. No idea what I did... but, it worked! I suddenly remember the matter at hand – ghost octopus floating around the science lab – and stand back up, leaning against the wall slightly for support. With a flash of light, I transform back into my more familiar ghostly self (again though, completely here! No see-though translucence, thank-you-very-much!). I fumble around for my Thermos before remembering it's still in my backpack, in the classroom.

Blinking invisible, I phase through the door and drift over to where my backpack sits on the floor next to my desk – I avoid flying through anybody, regardless of the fact that I'd just phase through them anyway. That just seems kinda creepy. Reaching an intangible hand into my backpack, I dig around a moment for the Thermos. I wait for my invisibility to spread to it before pulling it out and leaning back, floating right back out the nearest wall.

I quickly get my bearings and make my way back to the hallway I'd found the ghost in. I briefly consider walking (just to get over the weirdness of this morning), but flying is quicker and I want to catch this ghost before it causes any trouble. Almost in time with my thought however, I hear a scream from down the hallway.

"Eek! Ghost!"

"Aww, I think it's kinda cute!"

I turn the corner to see two girls – one with short black hair, cowering behind the other and pointing at the octopus-thing. The other girl has auburn curls and is grinning, arms crossed. I land and pull out my Thermos, shouting at the ghost. "Hey, ghost-... thing. Whatever you are!"

"Eeek! Another ghost!" Short-black screams again, backing up against a bank of lockers.

"Huh, dunno. I think _he's_ kinda cute too." Auburn-curls shrugs, frowning.

Unfortunately, the octopus floats up and out of the way as I fire the Thermos at it – okay, so admittedly, maybe I shouldn't have yelled at it first. Not to mention I fumbled finding the button – hey, I've only used this thing once! Anyway, it turns it's attention to me, before floating up through the ceiling.

"Gyah! I'm getting out of here!" Short-black yells, running off down the hallway. Auburn-curls snickers, waving at me before running off after her friend. I shake my head slightly, refocusing, and follow it up through the roof. Hey, at least this one is apparently more focused on running away. _Er, flying away?_ Unlike the bloody Shadow, which had been pretty persistent in trying to crush me.

It's easy enough to find on the second floor – it hadn't done anything besides float up there. Now it was just floating around dumbly in the middle of the hallway. Apparently, not all ghosts were as clever as the next. I'm pretty sure that Sam's Shadow hadn't even been _that_ intelligent, and, this thing... well, this was just sad. I uncap the Thermos, this time deciding against announcing myself, and fire it. The ghosts looks startled, but beyond that doesn't even seem to fight against it. Weird. And kinda depressing, really. Oh well.

I glance at one of the clocks up in the hallway, and realize that I only have a few minutes to get back to class – it occurs to me that if the teacher finds me missing, I'll be in loads of trouble. "Yikes!" I mutter, dropping through the tiled floor and into the first floor hallway. I duck into an empty locker just as the bell rings, and flash back to normal. Ah, maybe I can still make it on time?

* * *

><p>Danny gave a startled yelp as he stumbled out of the locker, receiving a few strange looks from some of the students just starting to stream into the halls. He blinked in surprise, spinning around with wide eyes. <em>What on... how in the... where...?<em>

He stumbled backwards, trying to remember what he was supposed to be doing. He had been outside his math class! _Math class! Oh no!_ Danny gasped as he realized what time it was and ran back down the hallway to the math room. He found Sam, Tucker, and the teacher all standing around outside. Sam was carrying his backpack over her shoulder. Tucker was the first to spot him, and nudged Sam. The teacher looked up as well as he skidded to a stop in front of them.

"I asked you to wait outside the classroom for me."

"Uh, yeah." Danny nodded slowly.

"There were only about fifteen minutes left in class. What, exactly, was so important that you couldn't wait before running off?" the teacher was frowning, arms crossed. Sam and Tucker were just giving him blank looks, like they couldn't really understand either why he wouldn't just wait when he knew he'd get in more trouble for leaving.

"I, uh... don't know?" He answered slowly. The teacher's frown only seemed to deepen as he raised an eyebrow, and Danny shifted uncomfortably under his gaze. The teacher opened his mouth to say something more, but Danny cut him off. "No, seriously! I don't know! I was just sitting here, and... and..." He trailed off, realizing the teacher was no longer listening, and gave an exasperated growl, throwing his hands up.

"What's that?" The math teacher asked suddenly, noticing the object in his hands, which he hadn't had when he'd left the classroom.

"...Huh?" Danny blinked and looked at it, as if noticing it for the first time. "Uh, Ida know. A thermos?" He stated blandly. Sure, he didn't know where it came from, but it was still fairly obviously a thermos. Though, it did seem familiar to him for some reason...

The teacher sighed, shaking his head. "Fine, since you're not normally a troublemaker, I'll let you off this time. _But,_" he continued, before Danny could feel too relieved, "I want you to tell me the truth before the end of the week. If you don't, then you will have to have a short detention on Friday." Danny groaned and frowned. "Yeah, fine." He muttered. "I can go now?" He asked hopefully.

The teacher nodded and he grinned, grabbing his backpack from Sam. "Cool, thanks!" He called, rushing down the hall to their lockers, Sam and Tucker close behind. He shoved the Thermos back in his locker while he was there, still confused about how he'd ended up with it.

"Where were you, Danny?" Sam asked curiously.

"Yeah, why'd you just run off like that?" Tucker prodded.

Danny blinked at the two of them. "I already said. I have no idea."

"Wait, you actually meant it?" Sam frowned.

He watched them. "You thought I was making that up for the teacher?" he asked, confused.

"Well, um. Yeah?" Tucker rolled his eyes. "You don't exactly have a habit of spontaneously disappearing." he admitted.

"No!" He shook his head, frustrated. "I was sitting in the hall, and I guess I must have drifted off. Next thing I know, class is over and I'm falling out of some locker."

Both of his friends frowned thoughtfully at that before walking outside. Today was a health class instead of gym, and it was being held in a portable. "Huh, that's weird." Tucker said, shrugging it off. Then he laughed. "Someone probably found you sleeping in the hall and stuck you in the locker during your nap." He grinned, but Danny didn't seem to find it very funny. Tucker didn't seem to clue in to the bland look on his friends face.

Sam was caught up in her own thinking, frowning to herself. Nothing about anything that was happening was normal. Then again, a lot of stuff had happened since she'd moved here, so perhaps she still had to finish readjusting her sense of 'normal' and 'definitely-not-normal' before she could be a judge of these things. Tucker didn't seem to worried. Then again, Danny definitely seemed weirded out by it all.

_Well,_ she finally decided, _I guess I just have to use my own judgement here. All I know is, something weird is definitely going on with Danny. _She sighed, deciding that she'd need to keep a closer eye on him from now on until she could piece this together.

* * *

><p><strong>Mossmask: Introducing Sam: Super Sleuth! shot xD**

**Anyway, I hope that chapter worked. I know this chapter was a little late due to a whole slew of time and unforseen occurances, but I actually liked the extra time. I think I get a lot more chance to read through it and maybe fix and change stuff, dunno. So, I'm thinking that I might start putting a bit more time in between all of my updates, like this.**

**Anyway, questions? Sure. What other fandoms are you into? Just a few? A whole load of 'em? (I'd answer here, but it's a pretty big list and it's already on my profile. xD)  
><strong>

**Oh, and here's one. Do you secretely fantasize about self-inserts and Mary-Sues and stuff, even if you know you'd never actually write it? (Or do you fantasize about it, and then go ahead and write it, like a boss?) I'm just curious, because I am so, so guilty of this.**

**Until next time, ~Dash Out  
><strong>


	10. Super Sleuth, Sam!

**Mossmask: I'd like to start this off with saying thanks to everyone for understanding that a break needed to be taken, and letting me take some time off. Special thanks to Elle Aitch, Looka'sMagicHell, Dark-heika, Oak Leaf Ninja, Sincerely The Sign Painter, and ShadowDragon357 for the comments you left on my impromptu rant. (Same goes for all of you who left comments on Glimpses: MsFrizzle, DarkShadowKun, Fluhatraya, and CoronaIgnis. I never took the time to thank you guys). I seriously appreciate the comments you guys left me.**

**This chapter is 500 words short – I doubt too many of you would have noticed.  
>I took a long time on it, but finally decided this was a good place to cut off.<br>It was a struggle to write because I've been crazy busy and having so many conflicts right now.  
>But whatever – this has finally gotten around to making it higher up on my priority list again.<strong>

**I know you guys have left critiques in the past. If there was ever a need for criticism, the time is now. I feel a bit like I've lost my way with this, and my style is a little lost. It took me so long to get through this, I think the quality wavers constantly throughout. Some honest critiques would be deeply appreciated right now, and probably a huge help in getting me back on track. Thanks to everyone, and so sorry for the delay.**

**~Cya on the other side**

* * *

><p>The Goth and the Ghost<br>a Danny Phantom fanfiction  
>by The Cinderninja<p>

* * *

><p>Chapter 10: Super Sleuth, Sam!<p>

Sam crept down the hallway, small frown on her face. She was pressed up against the wall in what she assumed was a very 'secret-agent'-esque manner. Her target ducked through a door, and she slunk up beside it, reaching for the handle. "Ha!" Throwing the door open, Sam came face to face with... an empty classroom? She frowned, and stepped in, letting the door click shut behind her.

She paced to the front and peeked under the large teacher's desk, frown growing deeper. Turning and crossing her arms, she walked around the entire room, checking behind and under desks, chairs, and bookcases alike. Nothing. "What on _Earth_ are you up to, Danny?" She wondered out loud, baffled. He'd definitely come in here! She'd seen him! "You... you went in here! I _saw_ you! ...Augh. This detective work is turning out to be harder than I thought." She sighed, giving up the chase for the time being.

Shutting the door behind her again, she walked back out into the hallway and walked back to class. She stopped to get a drink from a fountain on the way, deciding she may as well do what she'd left for. She slunk back into her desk near the back of the room and listened as the math teacher drawled on about quadratic equations. Her mind was elsewhere. She sighed and glanced out the window, tapping her pencil against her desk, lost in thought. She vaguely noticed flashes of light off in the distance.

* * *

><p>It's taken about a week, but I think I'm finally starting to get the hang of this ghost-fighting thing. Sort of. Well, okay, not really, but I'm getting better. That's gotta count for something, right? Hey, at least I've figured out the basics of most of my ghost powers, and I don't fumble the Thermos anymore... usually. That... gave me some problems at first. Heh. But we don't need to talk about that now.<p>

Not only that, but I'm slowly starting to get the hang of splitting. Er... that's what I call it. The thing from the other day. I can project myself outside of Danny's body that way. Unfortunately, I can't actually interact with anything when I do. Can't touch stuff, and no one, save Danny, can see or hear me. I learned _that_ the first time, so I've been more careful to keep out of his sight. It's harder to come apart than it is to stick us back together. All I really need to do is grab onto him and it just sort of... happens.

A sudden blast whizzes by my shoulder, reminding me where I am – and why I'm here in the first place. "Okay Phantom. _Focus._" I berate myself, suddenly turning intangible just as an ectoplasmic rocket blasts through me and explodes against the side of a building. "_Yikes_!"

Skulker. The most annoying – or second most annoying – ghost. Next to the Box Ghost, I suppose. Both of whom I'd recently become 'acquainted' with. So far, the only ghosts I actually knew by name. _And the only ones who Keep. Coming. Back. _No idea what their deal is with me anyway. Actually, it's more or less Skulker who seems to have it out for me. The Box Ghost just grinds on my nerves, but – _why am I talking about him again_? Sheesh. Guy really knows how to get under your skin.

"And _you!" _I shout suddenly, jabbing an accusing finger at the metal-clad ghost. "What is it with you? Why do you keep following me around?" The accusation cuts itself off as I suddenly have to jump – while floating in midair, which isn't the easiest thing to do – to avoid yet _another_ ectoblast, followed shortly by another volley of small, but well aimed rockets. I yelp as a good handful hit their mark, and get spun around in the air before a brick wall stops the movement.

"...Joy."

"I am Skulker, the Ghost Zone's _greatest_ hunter!" I don't think he notices me mimicking him as he speaks. Because he's pretty predictable. I mean, it's not like he's only said one basic sentence and slight variations thereupon in all the time I've seen him. "And you are-"

"Seriously sick of this." I interrupt, irritated. I pull out the Thermos – I've taken to strapping it to my belt when I transform so _both _hands are actually free. You'd be surprised how much of a difference that makes – and toss it from one hand to the other, popping the cap off and aiming it in one swift move. A few seconds later, and the Ghost Zone's Most Annoying Hunter is gone, cap back on. I check my watch and grin.

"Hey! I'm getting better at this." It's only then, when the fighting is over, that I notice the news van parked on the street. Groan. To be honestly, I'd have thought that ghosts would've been old news by now, but I guess people stick to what they know. I grin and wave at the camera. "Hello, and goodbye!" Blinking out of the visible spectrum, I make my way back to the school as quick as I can.

* * *

><p>"So, Danny. What took you so long to get back to math today?" Sam asked, in a painfully obvious trying-and-failing-to-be-nonchalant tone of voice.<p>

But Danny, being Danny, didn't notice. Instead he shrugged casually. "Ida know... I guess I must have gotten caught up with something." He sounded slightly uneasy, but hid it well enough.

"Caught up? Something like what?" Sam asked, leaning forward. Tucker was surprised she hadn't whipped out a notebook and started taking notes yet. It was that bad. He was also baffled that his friend hadn't picked up on it yet. Yeah, he was clueless in many ways, but sheesh.

Yes, Tucker had noticed that Danny was acting weird, lately. That is to say, weirder than usual. That's the thing, you see. Danny was always weird. Pretty much everyone in Amity was weird at some point, but Danny especially had a fairly large build in weirdness-factor. So Tucker ignored it. Not to mention, they had been best friends since forever. If something was _actually_ wrong with Danny, he'd tell him. He didn't _need_ to go around 'investigating' everything.

But Sam was the new girl. The... excessively _strange_ new girl. So let her do what she wanted, he figured.

"I, uhh... I had to stop at my locker for something." He answered, shrugging awkwardly, starting to feel uncomfortable.

_Whip_. And there was a notebook. A legit notebook. Sam was scribbling in it quickly. Tucker facepalmed in his seat, off to the side. "What did you forget?" She asked lightly, leaning back and trying to look like she wasn't waiting to scratch his answer down.

"Uuuh, my... um, pencil." He answered lamely. Then winced when he realize how lame that excuse had sounded. "Look, can we forget about it? I was gone a few minutes longer than I should have been, alright? Sheesh. It's not the end of the world." He crossed his arms stand-offishly.

Truth be told, he had no idea where he'd been or what had taken him so long. He vaguely remembered leaving the classroom, though he couldn't recall why... he'd gone into some other classroom or something, but he really couldn't be sure. Everything after that was just a total memory blank, until he'd found himself standing back in the hallway outside his classroom.

Maybe someone else would have told someone about it, but Danny was notorious for brushing 'big deal' stuff off as 'not a problem'. It ran in the family. That and he desperately wanted to be normal. Normal kids obviously aren't going to tell the cute new girl all about their sudden rash of periodic amnesia. Yeah. Definitely not normal. So of course, desperately-wants-be-normal Danny decided that the best solution to this problem would be to pretend it didn't exist, and hope it went away.

Sam frowned, watching him closely, but nodded. "Okay." She smiled, sitting up abruptly, the sudden change of atmosphere startling both Danny and Tucker. She pulled her lunch out and tucked her notebook away in the pocket of her dark purple jumper. "So what's up?" She wondered, leaning back with her elbows on the table.

Danny and Tucker both blinked, staring blankly for a few long, awkward-silence filled seconds. Then Danny seemed to break out of his surprise-induced-trance and grinned. "Dad bought me Zombie Destruction III yesterday. It was the last copy at the store! You guys can come over and play it tonight if you want." He added.

Sam shrugged. "Eh, it wasn't as good as the first two. They toned down the blood in favour of 'deepening the plot'." She made air quotes and crossed her arms, frowning.

"How would you know?" Tucker asked, "That game only came _out_ yesterday!" He and Danny were both staring at her incredulously.

"...Oh." Shifting uncomfortably in her seat, Sam shrugged. "Well, my dad got me the beta version a few months ago... I got to play it through before they came out with the full game."

"Cooolll!" Both boys were watching her with dumb grins plastered across their faces. "Dude, that is _so cool_." Tucker enthused. Danny nodded rapidly, hair flopping in front of his eyes. He grinned as he swiped it out of the way.

"Yeah! Why didn't you tell us?" He asked.

Sam shrugged. "It was... a few months ago? I'd sort of forgotten about it until now. I mean, why would I be thinking about old video games when I'm practically living one."

Tucker snorted and shot Danny a pained look. "Old, Danny. It's a new release, and she's already calling it _old_." Both boys snickered, and Sam sighed, resigned to her fate. If only she'd kept her mouth shut. That was the last time she blabbed about video games or movies around boys.

* * *

><p>"Eugh, Danny. That game is disgusting. I don't know why you play it. <em>Or<em> why dad _bought_ it for you in the first place." The redhead shot a pointed glare at the father in question, who responded with an innocent grin and a shrug, before going back to rummaging through the refrigerator.

"It's not even that bad." The annoyed teen answered, not bothering to pause the game and look at his sister. "Sam was right, they trashed most of the really good special effects in this game." For a very short second, his face held a rather forlorn expression. But it vanished quickly and was replaced by a feral grin as he returned to blasting noticeably-less-bloody Zombie guts around the room.

Jazz made a face and shuddered. "I am _sooo_ out of here. You can play your gross video game. I'm gonna go read a _book_. You should try it sometime."

"I read!"

"The TV guide doesn't count."

Danny shot her a glare over his shoulder as she smirked, waved her fingers at him, and stalked off to go bother someone else. He turned back around and let out a groan when he realized she'd made him loose his life. "_Jaaaazzz!_"

He sighed, restarting the game from his last save point, this time swearing not to get distracted.

"Hey, Danny!" The boy jumped. He hadn't heard his mom come in. Her voice sounded like she was talking to him from the kitchen, attached to the living room by an archway with no door.

"Uh, yeah?" He called back, leaning to the side and sticking his tongue out between gritted teeth as he focused on the game in front of him. "What is it?"

"Have you seen the news today?"

"Uh, no. I don't watch the news. You guys always have the stupid thing tuned in to Ghost Watch." The Fenton family had three television sets. One was in Jazz's bedroom. One was in the living room, for family use. And of course, there was the old, tiny television set sitting on the counter in the kitchen. Which was, exactly as Danny had claimed, almost always set to the Ghost Watch channel. Yes, that was a real channel. It's Amity Park, what did you expect?

"Yeah, I know... there's some new ghost on -"

"Mom? There's _always_ 'some new ghost' on TV. And I _never_ really care." He almost got hit by a rabid Zombie as it threw it's dismembered arm at him while he was distracted, but he managed to dodge just in time. "I'm kinda busy here!" He added tersely.

The only response at first was a drawn out silence, and the undiscernable voices from the television set in the other room. After a pretty brief period, though, she continued. "I dunno, I think you should come loo-"

"I'm tuning you out now!" He called back, turning up the volume on the game until all he could hear was the sound of moaning Zombies and machine gun fire. He sighed, smiling and leaning back into the couch. "Ah, finally. Time to kick back and kick some Zombie butt."

* * *

><p>Sam sighed, resting her chin in her hands, elbows on her desk as she chewed on her pencil, tapping it up and down between her teeth. Danny was late for class – again – and she was really beginning to get annoyed. At first she was suspicious and worried. Where was he getting off to? What was he up to? What was with the abrupt character change, so soon after she'd only just met him?<p>

She'd tried puzzling it out with Tucker, but Tuck didn't even seem that concerned. "Eh, Danny's just weird like that. It's probably a phase." And then he would shrug and walk off. Teacher's didn't even seem to notice the change – that or they just didn't care. It made sense. Skipping was what most normal kids did. So he just did it more then the rest. He was acting up, he got detentions, end of story.

Amity Park saw it's fair share of oddities. No one could bother to be concerned with a single out-of-character teen. No one, that is, but Sam. The longer it went on, the more encouraged she seemed to be to figure it out. She was very quickly adapting to the self-appointed role of 'super sleuth.' It was just like one of her old detective novels – so what? She liked those when she was younger!

Taking the pencil out of her mouth, Sam glanced at the wall clock hanging above the door and scribbled down the time as Danny stumbled sheepishly back into class, looking confused and embarrassed as he shuffled over to take his seat beside her. "So, where were you _this_ time?" She asked in a quiet deadpan, trying to avoid the scowl the teacher was sending them both.

"I – uh... lost something outside. I had to look for it." It sounded more like a question than an answer.

"Whatever." She rolled her eyes, but was still grinning slightly. Tucker was snickering in his seat behind them. She glanced back at her notebook and the numbers scribbled in the margins. Something about it troubled her, but she couldn't quite figure out what it was yet.

"So, uh, did I miss anything important?" He asked nervously, trying to open his math notebook as quietly as he could.

Sam glanced at the clock. "Well, yeah. Basically the entire period. We had a lesson today. I've got notes, though. You can copy mine." She snapped her math binder open and pulled out a few sheets of paper out, passing them to the dark haired teen. "Here." She muttered quietly.

"Thanks." He whispered back, taking them and starting to copy out the equations written on the page.

"Hey! Can I borrow that later?"

"You were _here_, Tucker!"

"Yeah, but I wasn't actually paying _attention_." Danny facepalmed and Sam grinned, subconsciously doodling in the margins of her notebook, next to the pages of time-ins and time-outs she had on Danny. She zoned back in when the bell rang, and saw some small doodles of that ghost boy from the news. She furrowed her brow, turning slightly red. She didn't even know why she'd been thinking of him – but she knew why a lot of the other girls were talking about him!

"Sam?" Sam jumped, slamming her notebook shut, and turned to face Danny. "Uh, yeah? What?"

He grinned at her, looking bemused, and jerked his thumb towards the door where Tucker was already waiting. "Uuh, class is over. You... coming?"

"Oh! Yeah! Sorry!" She flushed a deeper red and dumped her books into her backpack, standing up and shoving her chair under her desk with a kick from a combat-booted foot. "Let's go!" She abruptly walked past him towards the door. Danny blinked, confused, before shrugging and following.

They all caught up with each other in the lunchroom. It was there that Sam finally began to get her first clue, and a vague idea began to form in her mind.

* * *

><p>The new ghost-boy in town, foolishly dubbed by some overpaid news anchor "Inviso-Bill" was rapidly becoming a hot topic of conversation among the teenage population of Amity Park. It had only been a few weeks since he'd started showing up, and as was always the case, the adult generation was unforgivably slow on the uptake. So the only people who were left out of the loop were the old and the clueless.<p>

Sam was neither of those. She wasn't interested in gossiping about ghosts. Especially when the only reason anyone was interested was because they thought he was cute. Sam thought ghosts were many things – cool, creepy, interesting, were all on the list. But date-material wasn't one of them. Which was why she couldn't figure out why she couldn't get her mind to truly drop the subject for a very long time.

She had other ghosts to be more interested in. Like Shadow ghosts, which had become one of her own personal interests,and topics of study. But as much as she convinced herself that Inviso-Bill wasn't going to help her sort out the growing mystery on her hands, something in the back of her mind seemed to disagree. Some subconscious part of her kept pushing him to the forefront, as if telling her to _pay a little more attention._

Well, today just happened to be the day that she did. And it was completely accidental. She was tuning out Danny and Tucker's conversation about some theme park they went to last summer that was going to be getting a new zombie ride, when she picked up on another conversation happening a table over.

"Aww maan! That's so unfair! How come _you_ always get to see him?"

"Just ignore her, Linsay. She's obviously lying."

"I am _not!_ I've seen the ghost boy three times last week. He always shows up during third period English."

"I saw him yesterday-" another girl cut in timidly.

"You weren't even here." Scoff.

"...It's not like he only shows up at school. I saw him while I was with my mum at the mall. He fought off this great big snake at the food court while we were having lunch."

Meanwhile, Sam was absently writing this down in her notebook – but not as absent as usual. She'd begun to notice what they were saying, and was writing beside her other notes.

Three times during third period last week. Yesterday, at lunch. Wednesday he'd been on the news. A pattern was beginning to emerge, which made Sam furrow her brow in confusion. It was either total coincidence – which Sam didn't believe in – or this was getting a lot more difficult then she'd first anticipated. With a sigh, Sam tipped her head back. The conversation had been swallowed up again by the rest of the cafeteria noise, and she could no longer hear it, but that was fine. She'd gotten enough to make her wonder.

And even though she had no idea what this pattern might mean, she had a feeling there was one person who would know. She just had to come up with a way to find him, and get close enough to ask.

* * *

><p><strong>Mossmask: Oh, and I have a new poll on my profile... xD<br>**

**~Dash Out**


	11. Danny's Secret Revealed!

**Mossmask: Well, yeah, I'm sorry for being so late, but gosh. I've basically disappeared off the internet lately. I haven't been writing fanfiction, I haven't been posting anything on deviantArt, and my gosh, I haven't been replying to reviews at ALL! I'm so sorry.**

**But I've been awfully busy with school and life and stuff (geez! this stuff is overrated. =n=). Anyway, I have a few weeks free, then Summer School. That will over around the end of July, however, which is when my Summer actually starts. Which will also be when I _should_ slip back into my original update schedule - really freaking often.  
><strong>

**Anyway, I hope you enjoy this for the time being. ^^  
><strong>

**As always, please please please please _please_ critique me. I'm always over-critiquing myself, so without some wholesome realistic input, I'll never be able to improve! Thanks in advance for everyone who reviews, and apologies in advance just in case I can't find the time to reply to each of you. I seriously appreciate each review I get.  
><strong>

**~Dash Out**

* * *

><p>The Goth and the Ghost<br>Danny Phantom fanfiction  
>by The Cinderninja<p>

* * *

><p>Chapter 11: Danny's Secret Revealed!<p>

It was far easier then she'd expected to drag the confession out of him. Admittedly, Danny really wasn't very set in his ways most of the time. Or firm. Or bold. Or anything at all really. Much less so when cornered by his much-tougher-them-himself looking girl friend – that's two words. Friend who's a girl – after school without an escape route in site. Far easier.

Unfortunately, his version of the truth wasn't exactly what she'd been looking for.

"What do you mean, you _'don't know_'?" She frowned, leaning against the wall with her arm, blocking the only way out.

Black hair jostled back and forth as he shifted nervously from foot to foot. "Ah, well... exactly what I said. I don't know where I've been... going. At first I thought it was just sleepwalking or something, the way I'd keep waking up in the lab... and not really remember how I'd gotten there." Her brow creased. "But... I..."

He looked profusely uncomfortable, and wished she'd just let him off. He was gonna be late home. But he'd already finished pleading at least five minutes ago. Been there, tried that, didn't work. The only way he'd be leaving here is if he told the truth – or at least, enough of it to settle Sam for the time being. Why did she have to go sticking her nose in his business anyway, he wondered sourly. They'd hardly met, and suddenly she thought she was responsible for him? _Girls_. He'd never understand them.

"You what?" Impatience. _Really_?

"I don't know. I just keep winding up places. Blacking out. Not... _passing_ out. Just blacking out. Can't remember a thing. Nothing I can tell you is gonna help." He shrugged, tapping on the side of his head, as if to emphasize his point. "Sorry. Can I go now?"

"No! Danny, you _must_ remember some-"

"Nada."

She ground one toe into the tiled floor, frustrated. "Fine. Well if it's really that bad, don't you think you should see a doctor?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"I don't _need_ to!"

"But you -"

"I'm _fine._" He snapped suddenly. "Sam, this is _my_ business. You can't tell me what I need to do about it. You want to figure out what's going on? Be my guest. Let me know what comes of it. But you can't pry into me like this! It's called privacy – personal space!"

And with that, he shoved her arm aside with little resistance, and stormed past her down the hall.

Okay. So maybe she'd been a little pushy. But he didn't need to lose it on her like that! Didn't he...? Sam sighed. She'd gotten nowhere. Nothing accomplished. Besides making Danny angry with her. Then again... maybe... just _maybe_ she could have gleamed something from all this. She just wasn't sure what. She'd have to think it over later when she wasn't quite so frustrated. Or guilty. Or self-assured and mad. Or whatever it was, exactly, that she was feeling right now. She supposed she'd have to figure that out as well...

* * *

><p>Sam sat on her bedroom floor, legs crossed, breathing deeply. She reviewed her papers, and picked up one nearest to her. A list of things she was sure of, things she thought might be useful, and shots in the dark. She tried to clear her head before reviewing it, but for some reason, she couldn't, not entirely. Her head just fell heavy and full of junk. Her eyes were sore and bleary. Had she been getting enough sleep? Maybe she was just getting sick. Or maybe it really was just a headache. In any case, it made it difficult to concentrate. "Okay, okay. Focus, Manson. Just read it over one more time..."<p>

_**Things I'm Sure Of**_

_Danny is skipping class_

_Each time Inviso-Bill has shown up – that I know of – Danny has been missing_

_Danny can't remember where he's been going_

_Inviso-Bill started showing up shortly after Danny started having issues_

_ **Things That Might be Useful**_

_I can never find Danny when I follow him – it's like he literally just disappears_

_Ghosts can possess people?_

_** Shots in the Dark**_

_Danny's weird dreams about the Ghost Portal_

_(I'm still not clear on this: Where those dreams or did he actually go down and see it? Even he doesn't seems sure)_

Sam sighed, massaging her temples. "Observation shmobservation. I still think there's something I'm missing. Or maybe I'm just being _daft_!" She crumpled the paper in frustration and tossed it across the room. She wasn't throwing it out, and she knew she'd pick it up later – but right now, her head was still pounding, she was tired, and sick of thinking too much. "Aah, I'll figure it out more in the morning." She muttered. "Maybe I'll be able to see it when I look at it with fresh eyes, and fresh mind. I'm pretty worn out. So far, the only thing I can tell is that Danny and Inviso-Bill are somehow connected..." She sighed – even that was more then she'd had before. She must be making some progress – and changing into her pyjamas, crawled into bed.

* * *

><p>"Danny and Inviso-Bill are somehow connected!" Sam sat up and looked at the alarm clock beside her bed – 5am. She wondered what woke her. <em>How could I have missed it before?<em> She thought, berating herself. _Danny and Inviso-Bill are somehow connected._ That was all she needed to go on. She wouldn't need to piece everything together herself, she could just ask!

No, not Danny, obviously. She already had, and that had gotten her nowhere. But _he wasn't the only one involved._ There was another half to this problem, and _he_ was the one who probably had the answers that Sam was looking for. She nodded. Yep. He definitely would. Now... all she had to do... was somehow track down the elusive ghost. And get him to sit still long enough to answer her questions. Aah... she'd worry about that when it came to it. For now, she had to start planning.

When her mother came into her room half an hour later, at five thirty, she was shocked to find Sam already awake, dressed, and sitting at her desk, focusing on what she presumed was her schoolwork. Sam glanced up and noticed her mother, and soon after, the tray in her hand. Eggs, toast, bacon, and orange juice. Instead of getting mad at her mom like she usually did, she actually _thanked _her – shocking both of them and accepted it. She tossed the bacon out the window as soon as her mom had left the room.

A year ago, she might have tossed the eggs too, but she'd given up the vegan thing. It was too much trouble, and to be honest, didn't make that much sense to her. You didn't need to kill a cow or a chicken just to drink milk or eat eggs. She wasn't trying to prove anyone to anything, she just didn't want to eat animals. So vegetarianism was good enough for her.

She gnawed on her toast while reading over her plan-in-progress. It was... workable. Basically, she would just keep her iPod tuned into the Ghost Watch station. She'd noticed a while ago that Inviso-Bill always seemed to show up wherever other ghosts were. All she needed to do was mobilize as soon as a ghost arrived, and beat him there. Then, after he showed up and fought it, she could corner him. Or follow him. Or something. That was the in progress part. She couldn't figure out how to talk to him after tracking him down. Whatever, it was good enough for now! She'd take what she had and work with it.

* * *

><p>Sam cursed, stomping her foot, finally beginning to realize that this was going to be much harder then she'd originally anticipated. She'd missed him – again. Three times this week, she'd shown up too late. The one time she'd actually managed to get his attention, all he'd done was quip that he didn't do autographs before disappearing on her. She ran a hand through her hair before pulling the zipper pull of her dark wool sweater up, turning to run back to school and hoping she wouldn't be too late for class this time. Great – now she was starting to turn into Danny.<p>

She made it back to class just as the bell went to signal the end of the period, which was actually earlier then she'd have expected, considering she'd just run from the other side of town. She noted Danny was already there when she arrived and couldn't help but scowl at him a bit. He couldn't _really_ be as oblivious as he let on, could he? If she could just get him to admit to _something_, then she wouldn't need to go through all this trouble. But of course, that wouldn't happen. Sam sighed in frustration as she dumped her books back into her bag and followed the boys out of class.

"So." Tucker finally broke the silence as the three of them walked down the hall together to their next period class. "Where have you two been sneaking off to together so much lately?" He wondered aloud, startling both teens in question into staring at him open mouthed.

"We haven't-"

"I'm not-"

"And she-"

"I'm not _sneaking_-"

"-have no idea!"

"_Not together_."

Sam and Danny looked equally discombobulated as they finished their blurted mingle of sentences. "I'm not sneaking out!" Sam defended herself to Tucker. "I walk out and everybody knows it. And I haven't been with Danny! I don't even know where he's going!"

"And neither do I!" Danny added, getting dubious stares from both friends, neither of which was apparently eager to start believing him. "...Seriously." he added, with a slightly embarrassed mumble.

Sam shook her head. Nope, he'd never admit to it. But... she still couldn't figure out for the life of her what the deal was between the two of them. Where did Danny go when he ran off? Why did Inviso-Bill only show up when Danny went missing? Where did _he_ even come from? Just... _what _where the two of them doing together? Sam was determined to find out. And she finally thought she might have the answer. Stop the answer at it's source. She'd never catch up with the ghost boy if she kept trying to find him after fights. She was going to need to get a new angle on this – and she knew just what to do. But she'd need to shift focus back to Danny again. And figure out how he worked his disappearing act.

"Ooh, guys? I'm not really feeling well..." Sam spoke up suddenly, as they neared the doors to their math class. "I think I'm going to go visit the infirmary first, before I go to class. I might not even make it to class." She added. Both boys looked at her, confused.

"Whaddaya mean, Sam? You were feeling fine until just now." Danny frowned.

"Uh, no, I've been feeling unwell all day. I just didn't mention it until now." Sam countered quickly.

"Oh... okay. Well, if you want us to come with you-" Danny started to offer, but Sam quickly cut him off.

"No, no! I'm fine! You boys just get to class on time! I'll talk to you later!" She urged cheerfully, planting a hand on the small of each boy's back and shoving them through the classroom door. Once she was sure they were both sitting at their desks and not about to come back out, she walked to her locker to drop her bags off. Then she went back to class and sat down in the hallway outside the math room. She was sitting in a tight corner between a bank of lockers and a trash can, so if anyone walked down the hallway, chances were they wouldn't notice her.

Then, she settled herself in. After all these weeks, she knew she wouldn't have to wait long. And she was right. After only about ten minutes, the door swung open, and Danny stepped out. He glanced around quickly before scurrying off down the hallway. Sam immediately leapt to her feet, running after him. She wasn't going to lose him this time. That's why she waited outside. In the time it took her to get her own permission and follow him out, he'd always have gotten to far ahead. Not this time.

As he turned a corner she was only feet behind him, yet he didn't seem to notice her. He shoved open the door to the boys restroom, and Sam, being Sam, barged right in behind him before the door even had a chance to swing shut. What she wasn't prepared for, however, was what she saw next.

* * *

><p>"...What?<em>"<em>

I freeze. And spin around. And freeze again. My mouth moves a bit but no sound comes out.

"_What?_" She repeats. I still have no idea what to say to her. Where did she even come from? Why is she here? This is not at all what's supposed to happen! I can feel my mind start to slip into panic mode, and try to calm my nerves. It doesn't help that she suddenly has one hand on my chest, shoving me back up against the wall.

"_You_, have some _explaining_ to do, _mister!_" She nearly shouts.

"I...! Sam?" That's about as far as I get before my brain fails me again. What on Earth is going on?

"I mean, you were Danny! Just now! And now you're not! And I've been looking for...!" She trails off, sounding about as confused as I feel – but still really forceful!

"You... I've been looking for you. I need you to tell me what's going on." she's starting to calm down, which to be honest, is actually helping me calm down a bit as well.

"I... don't know what you mean." I say weakly, grinning as much as I dare, more out of nerves then anything else. "I'm not really sure what to explain..."

"What's happening with Danny! And what _you_ have to do with him!"

"_Do_ with him? I... it's me, though. I _am_ Danny."

"_You are not_."

"I am!"

"Prove it."

I blink. I'm... a bit confused. But in a flash, I change back. I'm still in control, and my eyes are still glowing brightly, but I've still become the Danny she's familiar with – the one she's more likely to believe. "See? It's still me. I'm still... me." I pause. "I think." I add, quietly, under my breath. Only I can hear it.

She peers closely at me. "How are you doing that?" She asks after a moment. "What are you doing? You're possessing him? Stop it."

I gape at her for a moment. "I- I'm not." But even as the words slip out of my mouth, something occurs to me. How could I know that? I know that somehow... h... _her_ Danny, and me... and somehow different. That he doesn't even know about me. So how could it be that I'm _really_ Danny, as much as I want to believe it? Danny wasn't a ghost. I am. So what if Sam was _absolutely right?_ I couldn't help but... but she... and maybe she was.

"Then... even if I was," I choke out suddenly, eyes widening, "I wouldn't know how to stop."

There was a long moment of silence between us, before she suddenly narrows her eyes and leans in closer to me. "Now what are you on about?"

"I mean, I though... I _am_ Danny, I _have to be_. But... I don't know, if... maybe I'm not... _your_ Danny."

"Then where is _my Danny?_" She snaps, frustrated. "Look, ghost boy. You've got five seconds to start making sense before I _make _you."

"Okay, okay!" I hold up my hands, suddenly feeling defeated. "I... don't want to hide anything from you. I... never did. I just _don't understand what's happening to me_. I think... I should start at the beginning." Suddenly, with a flash, I'm back in my own form. I hadn't meant to, but keeping hold of the human body while I was still in control took effort. I notice Sam flinch, but she doesn't say anything. It makes me a bit... upset, or something, but I don't say anything about it. Instead, I start to try and explain things as best I can.

"I guess..." I trail off, trying to think back to the first things I could really remember about myself. "Well, I guess it started when you gave me that medallion... or... the other Danny? It's hard to tell where his memories end and mine begin..." She frowns at me, but I continue anyway.

"All I really knew was... I was tired. It was like I was there, but not all the way. I sorta knew that I... _was_, but I still wasn't really awake yet... y'know, that feeling you get when you're not sure if you're awake or still dreaming?" She shot me a look that said no, apparently she didn't know that feeling. "Then... I kept getting more and more energy, until that time I woke up in the lab. I mean... _me_." I gesture at my glowing ghost body, just to clarify. "It was... weird. Because I _know _I'm Danny!" I cry suddenly, startling the both of us. "That's the only thing that makes sense! Why else would I be _here_?" I ask, gesturing at my own body yet again.

"People don't just appear in other people's bodies! I have all of _my_ memories, and no one elses. So if I'm not Danny, then who am I supposed to be? It's like, at some point there just started being _two _Danny's. But we're both just as much Danny as the other and it's not _fair_ that people think I'm not him because I _am!" _Wow. Geeze. That sounded a lot more whiny and needy then I'd meant it to. Where did that rant even _come_ from? But... to be honest, I meant it. Every word of it. I know that sometimes I feel like maybe I'm _not_, but I _have to be_.

Sam looks taken aback a bit. She's not really sure what to say. Finally, she seems to make up her mind. "Fine. If you're Danny, and you have all of _his_ memories-" I know she doesn't mean it, but I feel almost like she's emphasizing _his_ just to rub in the fact that she doesn't believe I'm him. It stings a bit. "Then why doesn't he have any of yours?"

"...What?"

"You say you remember everything he does, yeah? So why can't he remember anything you do? I'm assuming all those times he runs off, it's actually you. Going off to fight ghosts. But Danny doesn't know about that. Why are you hiding it from him?"

"To be honest... I'm not. I don't know why. I think maybe he's doing it to himself."

"What are you _talking_ about?" Sam snaps, losing her patience. _Again._

"I mean... uuugh. Jazz was going on about something like it a few months ago, I think. She had this big book and everything that she would _read to me from at bedtime_." I shudder at the memory. "stuff about how like, if someone doesn't want to believe something, or whatever, then they just block it out. So you can looks right at something and not even see it. Or... if something happens that you really don't like, then you can just block whole chunks of your memory out without even meaning to do it. I think. I dunno. I wasn't really paying that much attention."

"But..." she frowns. "You could get him hurt." She says, looking up to stare sternly into my eyes with her own deep violet ones. "You're off fighting ghosts in his body, and he doesn't even know about it!" Suddenly... she sounds angry again. "What if you got him _hurt_? You don't have any right to be doing that!"

"But... _Sam!_ It's _my_ body! _I am Danny_."

She stares back at me, meeting my gaze, before speaking coldly. "You're not. Not as long as _my_ Danny, the real Danny, doesn't even know about you. Until you tell him what's really going on, and he give you _permission to abuse his body like that_, then no. I won't believe you're really Danny. _My_ Danny is the one who's getting hurt because of what _you're_ doing. He's missing class, freaking out about memory blanks and weird dreams, and probably getting _actually_ hurt from all your stupid ghost fighting antics! Tell him! Tell him _why_ all that is happening to him! Get _him _to accept you! That's the only time I will."

And it hurts. It really, honestly hurts when she says that. She downright told me that I don't have a _right_ to be Danny. _Who does she expect me to be then?_ To my great surprise, the hurt passes almost immediately, and I next start feeling angry. Angry at her for rejecting me so harshly when she was meant to be my _friend_ and - ...but she has a point. Right now, there really are two Danny's. And all I need to do is fix that. Make us one Danny again. Get _him_ to accept the fact that he... we... _I..._ am... a ghost.

I suddenly jump as a thought occurs to me. "Sam! I'm sure we can deal with this all later, but... speaking of ghost fighting... I need to be doing that! Now! Five minutes ago! _Ten_ minutes ago! Aack!" I jump off my feet, hovering in the air and looking slightly panicked, before bolting through the wall to go confront whichever ghost had originally set off my ghost sense in the first place.

* * *

><p>Sam walked slowly back to class, in a bit of a daze. Her brain still needed time to sort through and process everything that had just occurred. Wait. Did she just solve her mystery? It couldn't be that simple. But then again, was it really simple... at all? No, definitely not. Danny was supposedly... possessed? Body-sharing? Mind-sharing? Schizophrenic ghost boy? <em>Half<em> ghost? Two Danny's? She still hadn't come close to figuring out what was really going on – no, this was only the tip of the iceburg.

But from now on, she vowed she wouldn't be solving this mystery alone. No, she'd have the help of Danny now. _Both_ Danny's, she added darkly in her own mind, already imagining the consequences if ghost-Danny didn't reveal himself soon to his other half. And... perhaps, even Tucker? Of course. He was Danny's best friend since forever, after all. In any case, all that mattered was that Sam had finally solved her secret. And now she could continue to solve the mystery, along with her friends help.

* * *

><p><strong>Mossmask: "Just... <em>what <em>where the two of them doing together? Sam was determined to find out."**

**The answer is Pitch Pearl, Sam. That is what.**


	12. Author's Note

**Mossmask: Well... **

There's not really a way around this. I've had this story on hiatus for so very long now...

Basically: I started off with no end in sight. I literally thought "Hey this is a cool concept!" when I came up with the whole Fenton/Phantom thing... with no actual conflicts or resolutions in mind. A story needs more than just cool characters and an interesting plot device. It needs an actual plot - a distinct climax, and a resolution. I would like you, as the reader, to look at how long this story is. In all that length... I haven't brought in a conflict. There have been small side-plots. Very small, chapter long excursions. But no build up to a greater event. I had a vague concept for a sequel - a _sequel_, when I didn't even know where I was going with the first one! - but no way to tie it together.

Now... here's the big thing. I _could_ say "this story is pointless, so I'm Cancelling it." But I won't... not just yet. I've read a lot of stories on FFN that just go on and on and on and ON, with all these subplots popping up but no actual story ever seeming to materialize in all the thousands of words they put up. I never liked them very much. But plenty of other people did.

So... I do still have... the basic _concept_ for whatever the heck I was planning on putting in the next chapter of this. I could still write it. And I'd still be going nowhere with it. But as I write each chapter, I lay the groundwork for something new to happen. So it's up to you guys, I guess. If you _want_ me to continue this story, with no real end in sight and no solid plans for the future... then I will. But if you see what I'm saying, and you realize it really would make no sense to go on, then, well... yeah. Just let me know what you guys want. I feel a bit disappointed in myself for slapping together something so ill thought out.

**About my other stories!**

Don't think this means my other stories are Cancelled! I've got, what, just the two of them (DP wise, that is)? Glimpses, and PhoAP? Those are still good. Glimpses is great for me. It's just drabbles and oneshots. There's no such thing as getting off track or running out of steam. You run out of muse, you don't post for a while. You get it back... you post again! Very simply, and I like it very much. Perhaps, if I'm not deceiving myself, I'll be getting some muse back soon! Very exciting.

And PhoAP is still going. It has an end. The whole story was spawned from the final scene. I came up with the ending before the rest of the story. I just need to sort of... make a working timeline. So I don't get excited and then jump too far ahead, and then want to fill in spaces in between chapters but have it be too late. I know... that made no sense. But it'll all work out.

As for new fanfictions? I've been through this routine TOO many times to count. I get really excited, start writing without thinking, and post as fast as I can for the sake of getting reviews and favourites and attention. Then it all falls through because I got too far ahead of myself. I'm going to follow the examples of many other writers on this site, and not start posting until a good portion, if not all, of my story is already typed out, as well as having the complete story mapped out in a way I can follow and have faith in.

Please remember to post your opinions in your review. I'd like to know what to do with this mess of a fic. Thank you. Good day.

**~Dash**


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